Captivity
by NetRaptor
Summary: Robotnik kidnaps five scientists to conduct unorthodox experiments for him, and Shadow vanishes at the same time. It is up to Sonic, Tails, Sally and Metal Sonic to rescue the captives.
1. Default Chapter

Captivity

by K. M. Hollar

Copyright info: Sonic and related characters copyrighted by Sega, Archie, and K. M. Hollar. This story is copyrighted 2005 by K. M. Hollar and may not be duplicated. It may be distributed online as long as this copyright header remains intact. Visit for more fics.

A word of warning: This is a fic in a long story arc involving the rise and fall of Metal Sonic. Mecha was defeated in the end of Sonic Heroes, but he has recovered from that with Shadow's aid, and that of a chao. Please see the fic Mercury Inferno Rising for the adapt of Sonic Heroes, and the fic Worthless, which chronicles Mecha's lengthy recovery.

Another scar from fighting the truth now

Has left me like a stranger to my need now

A masquerade, a game to figure out now

A cruel charade I cannot scream aloud

Oh please reach out to me

Open my eyes to see

I'm running from you now

Come rescue me somehow

"You are commanded to hunt and kill the living," said his Master. "But not all living ... only those who venture into our city. Those who are our enemies."

"But I am alive," the subject wanted to say. "Why should I destroy that which cost so much to create?" But he couldn't say it, because he could not physically question an order. He bowed his head and stepped through the door into the city of the dead. Only the undead zombie slaves populated it, and he, too, was a slave. A living slave in the dead city, and his mission was to destroy any other living creature. Nothing was allowed to live, because life was too unpredictable, too uncontrollable. He himself was only half alive, and the life in him balked at the living death around him.

Life detected. He received an order to hunt it down and destroy it, and he had to obey. He ran toward the enemy's location, through streets populated by the undead, their eyes staring, forever unblinking. He shunned them, for he was different. He was alive. He hated them, feared them, because one day he might become like them.

The living creature came into sight as he turned a corner. The vivid brown of its fur stood out against the drab greys of the city. It saw him and fled, and he pursued. It was alive, and no one was permitted to live in the city of the dead. He hated it on sight, because it was alive while he was half-dead. He feared living creatures, because one day he might become like them.

His orders were to kill. To take away the life that this intruder was arrogant enough to possess. He obeyed this order, but even as the life left his victim's body, the life within him screamed in agony. He was destroying something sacred and wonderful, something valuable, something that should not be destroyed, and the half of him that was alive struggled and wept in agony. But he had his orders, and they came first. Master's commands always came first, for he ruled supreme over the city of the dead.

Over Robotropolis.

Metal Sonic awoke and sprang to his feet, his synthetic heart racing. Had he done it? Had he killed again? No ... his panicked eyes took in the four walls of his chamber, his cot, the chao sleeping in a nest of blankets on the floor. No, he hadn't killed. He had had another nightmare.

He sat down on his cot and tried to calm himself, rubbing his forehead with one clawed hand. It was the same nightmare he had every time he dared shut himself down. Every night he relived his Robotropolis years, except in the dream he was the semi-organic creature he was now, and not the demon robot he had been. He had killed so many people at Robotnik's command ... so many innocent people ... and he had taken even more to the roboticizer, to make them into undead slaves like himself.

Mecha rose to his feet, left his room and stalked down the hall to the control room. He growled, "Computer activate," and the three idle computer screens blinked on. He paced back and forth in their light, his red eyes casting a dim glow of their own.

The nightmares were growing worse. Ever since his last major upgrade, when his hoverjet had been removed to make room for his new carbon-based power system, his sleep had been wracked with ghosts and regrets from his past. He had only left Robotnik's service a year ago, rewriting the old code and destroying the old programs. Sometimes he mildly regretted this. Then he remembered all the things that Robotnik had made him do, and his regrets vanished. Enslaved and half-alive.

Why only half? Mecha pondered it for the hundredth time while suppressing a shudder. The dream meant something, he was certain, but it had already faded from memory, leaving him only with a vague dread.

He turned in his pacing and jumped. Standing in the hallway was a chao, its eyes reflecting the light of the computer screens. Mecha snarled at it. "What are you doing awake? Go back to bed, now."

The chao's ear-nubs flattened, and it hung its head and toddled back into the darkness. Mecha regretted being so harsh. He had never wanted a chao and never considered owning one. But Shadow had stolen an egg from somewhere, and it had hatched in Mecha's hands. The chao imprinted on him, and along the way she had done the impossible and stolen Mecha's heart. He had named her Aleda. He had nearly lost her to Robo Knux a month before, and it had made him fanatically protective of her. When he wasn't ordering her out of his sight.

Mecha's pacing slowed, and he stood looking up the hallway after Aleda. He felt guilty for snapping at her. Guilt! The sense that he had done something wrong! It haunted his dreams and his waking hours alike. His nanite brain was developing new pathways all the time, and his capacity for feeling was increasing exponentially. Which meant that half the time Mecha was an emotional wreck and didn't know why.

He walked softly back to his room, pausing to listen outside of Shadow's door. Mecha's ears detected the hedgehog's deep, even breathing, and Mecha was relieved. At least Shadow wouldn't bother him tonight.

During the long period following Mecha's final defeat at Sonic's hands, Mecha had sank into depression and wanted only to die. Shadow had been determined that Mecha would live, and they had shared a room for most of the summer so that Shadow could watch him. Mecha was past that stage now, and had moved back into his old quarters down the hall, and could roam at night as he chose.

Which was convenient when the nightmares started.

He pushed open the door to his own room and looked around for Aleda. Her blankets on the floor were empty. Then he saw the lump on his cot, and smirked. If she couldn't be with him, then she would steal his bed. Aleda's logic always amused him. He pulled back the blanket and picked her up. She blinked at him soberly, her feelings still hurt.

"Aleda," he said quietly, "there are times when I wish to be alone. Tonight was one of those times. However, I do not wish to be alone any longer."

A grin broke across her face, and she made a low, happy trill. She was only two months old, and had not yet evolved due to certain injuries, but she understood every word Mecha said. He stroked the top of her head and wondered when she would evolve, and if he would still like her once she could talk back to him. Most of his annoyance with Shadow stemmed from the hedgehog's backtalk.

He sat down on his cot and leaned against the wall, setting Aleda in his lap. She curled up with a yawn, and he stroked her, watching her eyes close and feeling her relax. She could sleep so easily. Mecha slept only if he commanded his robotic elements to idle, and then his mind tormented him with buried fears enacted in a virtual environment. He closed his eyes and rested his metal spines against the wall like a tripod. If he couldn't sleep, at least he could rest his body with inactivity.

Dr. Robotnik strapped himself into the Egg Walker, and pulled a pair of goggles over his eyes. He flipped a switch to activate the walker's energy shield, and as it flickered to life, he rubbed his hands together and grasped the control stick. It seemed as if he was preparing for combat, but this was not the case.

He was attending a meeting with a client.

Robotnik had lost weight during the five months that Metal Sonic had kept him imprisoned. Upon returning to freedom and his old hideouts, Robotnik found that he could fit into the smallest pants he had worn in thirty years, and grudgingly admitted that he had more energy. But dieting wasn't something that Robotnik did of his own accord, and he was working hard to regain his lost weight.

He guided his craft out of the hanger and down a ramp under the stars, flicking on his headlight. The walker itself had a rounded body with two squat, thick legs, but it could move at speeds up to 60 MPH. The walker had served him well, even after the beating that Tails had given it on the ARK.

He left the cover of the buildings and moved out onto the runway, his mech's feet clanging. After Mecha had vacated the Egg Tower and emptied the airbase, Robotnik had quietly taken up residence there, keeping up the pretense that the tower was abandoned. Only a select few knew otherwise, and he was meeting with one of them tonight.

His headlights caught a glint of metal, and two electronic green eyes appeared in the darkness. Robotnik stopped and turned his shield to full power. "Come on, Robo Knux," he called. "This is a truce, as you had agreed."

There was a long moment in which nothing happened, and Robotnik began to sweat with the tension. Then the robot walked up beside the Egg Walker and stood looking up at him, arms crossed.

Robo Knux was modelled after an echidna, with long triangular dreadlocks, a heavy body, and eight-inch claws on his knuckles. He had upgraded the panelling on his lower arms, and Robotnik saw that they were bulletproof shields, dented and scratched. Robo Knux had them crossed in front of him in a defensive posture. This was a meeting of dire enemies.

"All right, I'm here," snapped Robotnik. "What do you want?"

Robo Knux gazed at him with unblinking, digital eyes. "You've lost weight, doctor. Didn't Mecha feed you enough?"

"If you've come to insult me," Robotnik growled, but the robot cut him off.

"I need upgrades. Lots of them. You're the only one who can perform them."

Robotnik leaned an elbow on the dashboard and smiled. "Upgrades, eh? Why should I upgrade you? You're a rebel and a troublemaker."

"I only doublecrossed you twice, and that was years ago," said Robo Knux, shaking his head and making his dreadlocks swing.

"I only recall once," said Robotnik, fingering the end of his mustache.

"Once then," said Robo Knux, gazing at the Egg Walker's leg rather than at his old master.

"The point is, I owe you nothing," said Robotnik. "And you'll use your upgrades to doublecross me a third time. I know how you think."

Robo Knux's eyes flickered. "You have no idea how I think." He made as though to uncross his arms, but thought better of it. "Perhaps you'll be inclined to help me if I tell you why I need those upgrades."

"Yes, do," said Robotnik, eyes narrowing. "Assuming I can believe anything you say."

"You can believe this," said Robo Knux, uncrossing his arms at last and baring his torso to the headlights. His metal hull had been pared open in four gaping holes, and Robotnik could see the machinery running inside.

"Repairs, eh?" said Robotnik.

"Metal Sonic did this to me," said Robo Knux, his voice dangerously quiet. "I need enough upgrades to do the same to him, but fifty times worse. And mostly to his head." He re-crossed his arms, hiding the damage, and raised his chin defiantly to the human.

Robotnik gazed at him in silence, stroking his mustache. After a long moment he said, "Are you aware of Mecha's actions in July?"

"Yes," said Robo Knux. "Pity I missed the show. He's so strong it's insane."

"You're not the only one who wants revenge," said Robotnik.

The two gazed at each other. Robo Knux tilted his head to one side, and he would have grinned if he could have. "So! The great Doctor Robotnik is willing to stoop to enlisting one of his enemies to take down a rebel?"

Robotnik retorted, "It seems that the great Robo Knuckles is willing to stoop so low as to enlist his enemy to repair him. What happened to your little friend in Sapphire City?"

Robo Knux stiffened. "How did you know about him?"

"Who do you think is training him?"

There was another long pause.

"What kind of upgrades are you after?" Robotnik asked.

"Something to make me stronger than Mecha," said Robo Knux. "You're aware that he's semi-organic now?"

Robotnik looked him up and down. "You ARE stronger than Mecha. I have your elementary schematics on file. Your hull has honeycomb crossbracing for added strength, and your armor is half an inch thick. Do you still have the fusion core?"

Robo Knux nodded.

Robotnik shrugged. "You're the superior design. Robotics are superior to organisms in many ways."

Robo Knux grabbed the side of the Egg Walker, jolting it. "Didn't you hear what I said?" he snarled. "Metal Sonic appears inferior, but he inflicted this damage on me! He is NOT inferior, and I have to have the capabilities to destroy him!"

Robotnik looked at the diamond-tipped claws protruding through the energy shield, making it ripple and glow green. Robo Knux was desperate. Robotnik was amused, deep down; Mecha had whipped Robo Knux in a fight, and Robo Knux's pride was damaged.

"Well," said Robotnik, leaning back in his seat and steepling his fingers. "Sounds like you're after some nanotech upgrades."

Robo Knux released the Egg Walker's side, stepped back and nodded, folding his arms.

Robotnik glared at him. "I have news for you, friend. I don't build robots out of semi-biological nanotech."

Robo Knux's shoulders slumped and his arms dropped to his sides. His disappointment was almost comical.

Robotnik waved a hand in dismissal, as he used to do with the SWATbots in Robotropolis. "Go find yourself another pawn. I can't help you."

Robo Knux stood stock still, head hanging. Suddenly he lunged forward and grabbed the side of the Egg Walker in both hands, rocking it up on one leg. Robotnik yelped and grabbed his armrests as he was tilted toward the robot's pointed face.

"You have to help me," hissed Robo Knux in Robotnik's face. "You are the only one with the technological prowess to complete the upgrades I need. And you ... and I ..." The green eyes darted from side to side, and Robo Knux released the walker, letting it slam down on both feet.

Robotnik banged his elbow on the edge of the cockpit and cursed, rubbing it. Then he gazed at the robot, who had turned his back, and tried to figure out what Robo Knux was trying to say. "And I am ... perhaps, the only one you can trust?"

"I never said I trusted you," snarled Robo Knux, turning his head. "I want to destroy Metal Sonic, and so do you."

Robotnik considered. One of his fondest visions for the past eight months had been taking a sledgehammer to Mecha's head. And Robo Knux was begging to become that sledgehammer.

"I don't have any nanotech facilities," said Robotnik. "Aside from finding one and maneuvering a way to manufacture the upgrades you require, I'll also want payment."

Robo Knux spun around, eyes glittering. "Payment I can handle. What do you want? Money?"

"No, not money," said Robotnik, studying the robot. "How about a chaos emerald?"

Robo Knux lowered his head and clenched his fists. "I don't do chaos emeralds anymore, doctor."

"Do you want more power than Mecha or not?" snapped Robotnik. "They're not for you. I'd like a few for ... study." He smiled.

Robo Knux looked at him, then paced in a circle, eyes tracing back and forth as if he was reading his own thoughts. Robotnik watched him, feeling nervous and amused at the same time. Robo Knux's own desperation would undo him.

Robo Knux straightened and lifted his head. "What if I gave you Shadow?"

Robotnik lifted an eyebrow. "Shadow's alive?"

"He's Mekion now," said Robo Knux. "He's Mecha's faithful slave. What if we could reprogram him?"

"I wondered about Mekion," said Robotnik thoughtfully, pulling his mustache. "I only saw him twice, so I wasn't certain. How did he survive the ARK?"

Robo Knux jerked his head scornfully. "It's a long story involving a phoenix and lots of nanotech. He's rather boring, if you ask me, but he's dangerous if you cross him. Wouldn't it be fun to reprogram him to revolt against Metal Sonic? Then neither of us would get our hands dirty." He looked at his claws. "Not that I'd mind getting my hands dirty."

"I doubt reprogramming Shadow would be that easy," said Robotnik. "Brainwashing is difficult to overcome. I want a chaos emerald, any color. Further payment is up to you." He met Robo Knux's eyes, and the robot nodded. The implications included snaring Shadow.

"I'll be in touch," said Robo Knux. "Locating a chaos emerald will take time." He turned to go, but Robotnik stopped him.

"Wait, Robo Knux. I need your current schematics so I can plan upgrades."

Robo Knux gave him a narrow look. "You can't work with what you already have?"

Robotnik motioned to the robot's arms. "You've upgraded yourself since your original construction. I need to see the upgrades and decide how to proceed."

Robo Knux thought about it, then said, "I'm transmitting a partial schematic to your walker. I can't reveal all of my secrets, now can I?"

Robotnik opened the channel and received the files. "All right," he said. "Here's some of my own files as insurance." He punched a button to upload the files, and Robo Knux's eyes flickered off for a second.

Then they reignited, and he said, "But they're encrypted!"

Robotnik sneered. "I can't reveal all of my secrets, now can I?"

Robo Knux's eyes shimmered in hatred, and he turned without a word and strode away into the darkness.

Robotnik returned to the Egg Tower, deep in thought.

The sun was peeking over the blue mountains in the east, sending beams slanting down into the mists that wrapped the Great Forest in shadow. Tails slipped out of his hut, easing the door shut behind him, and shivered. The sun was a pale white disk, and the sleeping village around him was hazy and indistinct. It was a little after six.

The fox trotted to the building across the street, which looked like a shed with a lean-to built against the back. He unlocked the door, stepped inside and flicked on the space heater. He could see his breath, and felt his fur bristle all over his body to trap heat. Tails's thick winter coat had only partly grown in, and these chilly fall mornings made him wish it would hurry up. He grabbed a grubby windbreaker from a hook by the door and put it on, then pulled a tarpaulin off a massive object that took up most of the shed's floorspace.

"Good morning, Tornado," said Tails to the machine. Here lay his baby, his favorite toy, propped up on jacks with the outer panelling stripped off. It looked like a biplane that had sprouted legs, and its insides were composed of hydraulic rods and pumps. The Tornado - the plane - could transform into the Cyclone - the walker - in thirty seconds flat. Tails had also added a car mode, and was working on a boat mode to add amphibious capability. But making a transforming vehicle waterproof was a bigger challenge than he had expected, so the Tornado remained on its jacks, sucking down every spare mobiad he possessed.

Tails climbed over one of the wings and leaned into the cockpit. Resting on the seat was an orange crystal sphere like a bowling ball, but with a shimmer of light in its center. Tails picked it up, his fingers shrinking at the sphere's icy surface. The glow inside was dimming again, and he sighed.

This was a thrall sphere from the Floating Island, and when he had brought it to the mainland, he had discovered that not only did its power over chaos emeralds cease, but that it needed recharging every three or four weeks. This he accomplished by taping Sonic's chaos emerald to the sphere for a few hours, but at the moment the chaos emerald was in Sonic's hut, and Sonic was asleep. Tails would have to wait.

Tails set the sphere back into the seat, trying to ignore its soft, hypnotic hum. He reached into the space where the Tornado's flight computer had been, and pulled out a metal cannister with air slots along the sides. He unscrewed the top and slid out a thick glass tube, which he held up to the light. Inside was a glistening silver mass like a giant slug, floating in clear fluid. This was a five-pound bio-nano-computer, which Tails had bought on the Cocytan black market and wouldn't have paid off until next winter.

He carried the tube to his workbench, uncapped a bottle and opened a tiny vent on the tube's top. He added three drops to the tube's fluid, and watched as the blue-green drops were absorbed into the grey mass. The nanites were not yet mature, and needed daily feeding. It was a hassle, but Tails needed juvenile nanites if he wanted to integrate them into the Tornado. Once he added this supercomputer 'brain' to the Tornado, the Tornado would be 'alive' in a sense.

These nanites had a twenty-year lifespan, which Tails thought was more than long enough. When they ran down, he would be thirty-five, and probably wouldn't use the Tornado anymore anyway.

As the fox was screwing the glass tube back inside its metal casing, there came a knock at the door. "Come in," Tails called.

The door opened, and Sonic stepped in, carrying a steaming coffee cup in either hand. "Heya little bro," he said. "Want some coffee?"

Tails set the nanite cannister in place, straightened up and looked at the coffee cups dubiously. "Thanks, but I don't really like coffee, Sonic."

"You'll like this," said Sonic, grinning. His blue spines were freshly combed, and Tails could smell his hairgel. Mach 90, Sonic's favorite brand, for obvious reasons.

Tails walked up and took one of the cups. He sipped its contents and smacked his lips. "This is coffee? Whoa!"

"Yeah, it's amazing how good it is with cream and sugar," said Sonic, sipping his own. "And a few other ingredients I forgot to mention."

Tails grinned. "Trying to copy the Novadeer coffee, huh?"

"No point in paying eight-fifty for something I can make myself," said Sonic. "Aww, look at the poor Tornado. When're you gonna put it back together?"

"Once I get the new computer trained," said Tails. "I have ten holodisks left to put into it." He pointed at a box in the corner which was filled with neat stacks of disks, each labelled and numbered.

"So you already fed the brain?" Sonic asked, sitting down on an overturned crate.

Tails perched on the edge of his workbench. "Yep. And it's not a brain, it's a bio-nano-computer."

"It thinks for itself, doesn't it?" said Sonic. "It's a brain. Like Mecha has."

"Mecha's is a lot more sophisticated than this one," said Tails, and sighed, ears flattening. "You know, I kind of miss him."

Sonic gazed at Tails and didn't reply.

"Well, sue me," said Tails defensively. "He was kind of ... nice, and he helped save us out in the desert and everything."

Sonic looked down. "Yeah, he did. But he's still Mecha, don't forget that. And don't forget what he said he'd do to you if you ever tried to contact him."

Tails shivered. "I guess I shouldn't have tapped his network. But it was an accident!"

"It was an accident the first time, anyway," said Sonic, sipping his coffee. "Are you going to teach the brain to use the thrall sphere?"

"Not just yet," said Tails, thankful for the change of subject. Sonic didn't want Tails to make friends with Mecha, partly because Sonic was afraid that Mecha would try to corrupt Tails, and partly because Sonic was jealous. Tails didn't understand all this, and simply tried to avoid the subject.

Tails got up and took the thrall sphere out of the cockpit. "It's going dead again. Can I borrow your chaos emerald for a few hours?"

"Sure," said Sonic. "It's my day for the Hedgehog Express, but some exercise will do me good."

Tails clapped a hand to his forehead. "Today's Monday, isn't it? I can wait until tomorrow to borrow the emerald ..."

"Naw, take it," said Sonic. "I'll pick it up this afternoon. I'll still make quota."

Four times a week Sonic hauled packages from New Mobitropolis down to Riverbase, a round trip of a hundred miles. Sometimes he made the trip on foot, but most of the time he used his emerald to chaos control back and forth. Most of it was commercial supplies for the new businesses in New Mobitropolis, but sometimes it was mail. He was paid for how much material he could move between 8 AM and 6 PM, and he had never once fallen behind. Sonic, in essence, was being paid for his speed, and he loved it. He flippantly called himself the Hedgehog Express; but without his emerald, he would have to work a little harder.

The pair finished their coffee, and Sonic took Tails's cup. "I'll take care of these and get you the emerald. Want breakfast?"

"No, I'll get some later," said Tails. "Thanks, Sonic."

"No prob." Sonic ruffled Tails's headfur and left, closing the door behind him.

Sally Acorn walked into an office in New Mobitropolis, a short drive from Knothole. New Mobitropolis was being built on the ruins of Robotropolis, the Mobians slowly reclaiming their own from the tyranny and destruction of Dr. Robotnik. The old highways were being rebuilt, and the river was being dredged so that traffic up and down could resume.

Once Sally had been chief coordinator of all this, and the pressure had almost killed her. But she had given her executive power as Princess to the Mobian Senate, and they had shuffled her sideways into another office: Commander in Chief of the Great Kingdom's armies.

Now she was able to manage peacetime activities. The Great Kingdom didn't have an army at this point, and Sally was busy laying the groundwork for recruiting and maintaining one. She was playing Freedom Fighter for real, and she loved it.

She left work just before six and walked the five miles back to Knothole. The air was crisp and clean, like fine wine for the lungs, she thought. The forest was turning red, orange and yellow, and in many places the road was buried in drifts of leaves. Sally shuffled her feet through them as she walked. She did love her job, but even more than that, she loved getting off work and seeing Sonic. She joked that he was her first soldier, and he always sniffed and said, "The term is 'commando', okay Sal?"

She arrived in Knothole with her pockets full of pecans that had fallen into the road. The village was quiet and almost deserted, except for a few children playing at the forest's edge nearby. She stood and watched them, cracking pecans and eating the nutmeats. She had never dreamed that one day Robotnik's rule would end and children could play outdoors, unsupervised, without the fear of capture, torture and roboticization hanging over them. Rebuilding their world hadn't been easy, but Sally was already harvesting the fruits of her labors, and found that they were better than she had imagined.

She went to her hut and changed out of her uniform into her vest and boots, and paused in front of her mirror to run her hands though the fur on her arms and legs. Like Tails, she was growing in her winter coat, and shedding her summer fur was driving her crazy with the itching. She was taking vitamins to make her new fur grow faster, but she couldn't see any change. She brushed the long fur on her forehead out of her eyes, and went to see if Sonic was home yet.

His hut was dark and empty, but she knocked anyway. No answer. She sighed and turned toward the road leading in from the city. It was nearly seven. Surely he was off by now! She waited for a few minutes, then walked over and peered through one of the windows. She smiled. Sonic was sprawled face-down on his bed, one shoe kicked off and one arm dangling, snoring. His chaos emerald was a green spark on his bureau.

Sally returned to the door, opened it and stepped inside. As soon as she entered, Sonic opened his eyes. "Hi Sally." He sat up and blinked down at his feet. "Gah, I fell asleep! Sorry, Sal!"

"No problem," she told him, picking up his other sneaker and handing it to him. "You must have had a hard day."

"Yeah," he said, putting on his other shoe. "I made eighteen trips in on foot in three hours."

Sally stared. "That's eighteen hundred miles!"

"Yep!" Sonic looked smug. "Then Tails gave me back my emerald, and I chaos controlled the rest of the day. Broke quota at five." He stood up and stretched, then gave Sally an offhand sort of hug. "I'm starved. Want to get some food?"

"You bet," said Sally, smiling. She pulled a pecan out of her vest pocket. "Want one?"

"Sure!" Sonic crushed the shell between the heels of his hands and picked out the meat as they stepped outside.

Knothole had a big community kitchen and food storage as a holdover from the Freedom Fighter years. Sonic and Sally walked in and found two other families cooking dinner for themselves, and Tails was busily constructing a pyramid of chilidogs. Sonic sprinted to him. "Hey Tails, I ever tell you that you're my favorite person in the whole world?"

Tails looked sly, lying his ears back. "I am, huh? What'll you give me for these chilidogs?"

Sonic grinned. "I have three bucks in my wallet."

"Good enough." Tails handed him the plate, and waved to Sally. "Hi Sally! Hope you don't mind this for dinner again."

"Oh no," she said, smiling. "I didn't have to cook it, so it's fine with me!"

The three carried the food into the next room, which was set up with chairs and tables. They grabbed a table in the corner, then sat down and went to work on the chilidogs.

"How's the Tornado, Tails?" Sally asked.

Tails licked sauce off his fingers. "Doing pretty well. In another few days I can start integrating the nano-computer, and that'll be great fun."

"Yeah, you get to teach it to talk and stuff," said Sonic. "You gonna have it call you Master?"

"I don't know," said Tails. "Maybe 'operative' or something."

Sally nodded. "I guess it's not really a person ... it's just a machine."

"To do my evil bidding," said Tails, mimicking Metal Sonic's voice, and Sonic almost choked.

As Sonic recovered, Tails said, "Hey Sally, when you get the army running, can I design weapons for you?"

"Sure!" said Sally. "I'll appoint you as chief designer."

Tails's ears perked up.

Sally smiled mischievously. "When you're twenty-one."

Tails looked disappointed, and it was Sally's turn to laugh.

Sonic reached for another chilidog. "Buck up, little bro. It's only six more years. Think how smart you'll be by then."

"I guess so," said Tails. "I'd like to sign up at a university somewhere and take physics and metalshop. I still can't weld aluminum."

"Getting a scholarship for you would be a cinch," said Sally. "I'll get one of my aides on it. Oh, Sonic, you'll never guess who just got promoted to advisor."

Sonic shook his head.

"Fealor Nash," said Sally. "Remember that cougar who you and Slasher picked up during the biotic war?"

Sonic froze and stared at Sally. He nodded slowly, then swallowed and said, "Uh, Sal, wasn't he, like, mentally unbalanced or something?"

"No," said Sally, frowning. "His friend was the crazy one. Remember how angry Fealor was at him after the Riverbase incident?"

Sonic nodded, his eyes taking on a haunted look. "Sal ... fire him. Don't let him get into government."

"Why?" said Sally, raising an eyebrow. "He's bright and talented, and he's honest, which is more than you can say for most politicians these days. You're not jealous of him, are you?"

Sonic looked at Tails, who was watching them while he ate. "Trust me on this. Nash is bad news. He'll get to the top and turn into another Robotnik, except worse."

Sally blinked. "How do you know?"

Sonic opened his mouth, then closed it. "Nevermind," he said, picking up his chilidog again. He spent the rest of the meal in silence, leaving Sally and Tails to carry on a strained conversation, aware of Sonic's odd brooding mood beside them.

Up in the Ice Cap mountains, winter had begun in October, and the mountaintops were locked in tons of ice and snow. Deep underground, somewhere amid the ridges and valleys was an old base of Robotnik's that Metal Sonic had taken and used as his headquarters. During the winter it was dangerous to venture outdoors, and this was one reason Mecha liked it. During the winter months, the odds of anyone finding his hideout were nil. The only downside was that Robo Knux knew that Mecha used this base, so Mecha and Shadow were constantly on the lookout for him.

Inside, the hallways and rooms were kept dark to conserve power, and Metal Sonic and Shadow moved about using their infrared vision settings. But this winter Mecha was operating in his new body with all of its organic shortcomings, and for the first time he could feel the deep, penetrating chill of the concrete floors and walls. He marvelled that Shadow and the two chao had suffered this cold for so long without complaining, and set about making the base more habitable.

Mecha and Shadow closed off all the rooms that they did not use, and ignited the heaters in the main control room, along with the luxury of several lights. The control room became the primary hangout for the cyborgs and chao. Shadow controlled all access to the outside world with his orange chaos emerald, which he used to teleport to nearby towns for supplies and fuel.

Mecha's attention was consumed by two new projects. The first was to master chaos control for himself using Shadow's chaos emerald. Shadow attempted to train Mecha, but Shadow didn't understand how he used chaos power, himself. Shadow would often secret himself away out in the dark outer corridors and practice chaos controlling, and summoning the lightning bolt that he called 'chaos spear'.

Mecha's other project was a massive data search across every network and archive he could access. The first phase of this study was to learn about copyright laws in every country in the world. That was easy enough. The laws varied from country to country, but they all agreed that copying another person's work without permission was wrong.

The second phase of his study was giving him a harder time, however. He was looking for the head designer, the Master Designer, who had designed all life. By copying the organic body with his own synthetic designs, Mecha had violated the copyright that the Master Designer had on his creation. When this had dawned on Mecha, it had rattled him to the core. He had never thought of his quest for organic life in that light. So he was looking for a way to contact the Master Designer, whoever and wherever he might be, to discuss this violation and any penalties.

The trouble was that no one had ever heard of a Master Designer. There were vague references in the writings of various mystics and priests, but so far Mecha had unearthed next to nothing. He sat in front of the control computers and drummed his claws on the console. This would be easier if he knew the Master Designer's name. Maybe he had friends or contacts somewhere ... but how to locate the associates of a being whose name you didn't know?

Mecha knew he also had to consider that the Master Designer might live on a higher plane of existence, and was probably inaccessible to beings in the third dimension. The thought depressed him.

As he sat at the console, his thoughts a million miles away, he heard the patter of chao feet and felt a soft paw on his leg. "Mecha, are you busy?" said Nox.

Mecha gave the black chao a dirty look. "Yes. Is there a problem?"

Nox was Shadow's chao, black with twisted spines, striped with orange. Mecha tolerated Nox's existence, but the chao had the uncanny ability to feel the emotions in other people, and Mecha quietly despised him for it.

Nox was bouncing in place with suppressed excitement. "Nothing's wrong, no, but I thought I should tell you, but if you're busy, then - "

"What is it?" Mecha growled, drumming his fingers.

Nox couldn't contain himself. "Aleda's in otiae!"

Mecha rose to his feet and nodded, keeping his face blank. "Where is she?"

"You're excited, too, don't try to say you're not," crowed Nox. "Come on, she's in here!"

Mecha restrained himself from kicking the chao, and followed Nox out of the door and down the hall to the food storage room. "I was looking for her," Nox explained, "because I hadn't seen her in almost an hour, and here she was!"

Mecha entered the room and saw the cocoon at once. Infant chao grew into their mature forms by entering a cocoon stage and finalizing their genetic code. When they emerged a few hours later, they sometimes had changed colors, they were bigger, and could talk. The chao word for this was 'otiae', but everyone else called it a 'growth-sleep evolution'.

Mecha knelt and touched the cocoon, red eyes glowing brighter than usual. It was smooth and hard, like glass. The interior was turning a frosty white, and he could barely see Aleda inside, asleep sitting up, breathing slowly and deeply.

Nox danced around the cocoon and Mecha, clapping his paws and saying, "She'll be able to talk now, I can't wait! This is so great! Can I go tell Shadow? Please?"

"Yes, do," said Mecha through his teeth.

Nox darted out, leaving Mecha in the cold room with Aleda.

Mecha had been anticipating this day and dreading it at the same time. He wanted to see his little chao grow up, but he was afraid that when she emerged, she would no longer be Aleda. For one thing, she would be able to talk. What if she annoyed him, and he hurt her, and she stopped loving him? He clenched a fist - he must not hurt her. He must be kind, even if she annoyed him. If only he understood love and affection! He did not know how to show it to another person, except by refraining from harming them.

He picked up the cocoon and carefully carried it back into the warmth of the control room. He set it on the console and sat down in a chair beside it, where he could observe the phenomenon of a chao evolving. He had read about it, but never witnessed it. It was natural use of the chaos field, and perhaps condensed moisture.

Shadow's voice spoke across the wireless network that all the Mecha-bots used for close range communication. "Is she evolving, Master?"

"Yes," said Mecha, gazing at the white shell. "And I request that you do not call me Master."

"Yes Master," said Shadow with a touch of humor. "Notify me when she emerges. I'm busy with chaos practice right now."

"Affirmative," said Mecha, thinking of the orange chaos emerald. If only Mecha could learn to use it! But so far his chaos field was far too weak. And the new power system had not helped matters. The system allowed Mecha's body to run by processing organic material for fuel; in essence, it was a digestive tract. But it caused more problems than it solved, for Mecha had spent the week afterwards throwing up. A month had passed since then and his stomach had settled down, but Mecha still didn't trust it. He felt that it had weakened his entire body, and affected the strength of his chaos field.

He realized that he had been brooding on this for some time. The cocoon was slowly becoming translucent again, and he blinked and leaned forward. He made out Aleda's outline, but now it was bigger, and the shape of her head had changed. The cocoon was dissolving from the outside in, evaporating into water vapor. Mecha watched, fascinated.

She became more visible as the cocoon thinned. Her short fur had changed from muddy gray to a beautiful metallic blue that matched his own gleaming skin. Her tiny wings had divided into two pairs, like a dragonfly's, and her head had three spikes, just like his own. Her hands had elongated into hook-shapes with thumbs, and two feelers grew out of her head just between her ears. He had never seen a chao with insect characteristics before. Aleda was truly unique.

The cocoon vanished, and Aleda opened her eyes. Her irises were bright crimson, like his own. She looked at Mecha, and he gazed back, wondering what she would do next. She cocked her head to one side and said, "Hello, Mecha. Or should I call you Master like Shadow does?"

"Just Mecha," he said. "Never call me Master. I should never have conditioned Shadow to do so."

She climbed to her feet and looked down at herself. "Wow, look at me! I'm all shiny! Are my eyes red?"

"Yes," he said. "You have taken on several insect characteristics, as well." He pointed out her wings and antennae, and she felt them with amazement.

"Wow! Nox will be really impressed. Where are Nox and Shadow, anyway?"

"Elsewhere," said Mecha, eyes narrowing. "I doubt that they are interested in your development, however."

"You think so?" said Aleda. "Maybe we'd better ask." To Mecha's astonishment, her antennae straightened and she said over the network, "Hi Shadow! I'm through otiae. Do you want to see me?"

There was a long silence, then Shadow said, "Master, is that Aleda?"

"Yes," said Mecha, staring at his chao. "It seems that she has developed a few ... abilities."

Aleda clapped her little hands and laughed. "Oh good! You and Shadow always computer talk, and now I can, too! I can listen to you all the time! Better not say anything bad, Mecha."

"No," he said, looking at her with distaste. He was upset and delighted all at once, and wasn't sure how he felt about her.

Aleda didn't know how he felt, however. She smiled up at him with total innocence and said, "Can I have something to eat? I'm so hungry I feel like my stomach is caving in."

"Affirmative," said Mecha, rising to his feet. "Come with me."

She leaped off the console, flapping her wings, and managed to travel five feet before hitting the floor. Then she ran ahead of Mecha out of the control room, and he followed, trying not to feel amused.

Nicholas Karabian had an unusual job. He was a scientist who worked in a chaos-shielded laboratory, and he was the only human on staff. He knew that there were reasons for this, one of them being that he was the only human that his colleagues could tolerate. Nicholas joked that it was because he was almost Mobian, himself.

At the moment, all this was far from his mind. His hands were inside a pair of electronic gloves that governed a pair of plastic arms inside of a vacuum tube, and he wore a special headset that let him see the tube's contents through infrared, ultraviolet and chaoscope.

On the other side of the tube was a Mobian otter, also wearing electronic gloves and a headset. "Nick," he said, "catch the upright tablesphere, it's drifting."

Nick moved one hand, and the plastic claws inside the vacuum tube swerved and gently seized a long cylinder that was covered in nanite goo, which was threatening to stick to the side of the tube. He drew it back to the object in the center of the tube and released it. "Lintel, I'm picking up activity in the chaoscope. We haven't even put the chaos drive in this thing yet."

They were building a chaos-powered engine prototype using nano-based technology. The only problem was that chaos energy destroyed machines, including microscopic machines, and every time that they inserted the chaos drive, the engine incinerated. Nick and Lintel had taken every precaution this time, but now the chaos levels inside the tube were jumping around for no reason.

Nick heard the patter of feet behind him, and felt a tap on his shoulder. "Nick, Lintel's chaos field is interfering with the experiment. Shut it down before it overheats."

Nick groaned, and reached for the top of the tube with the mechanical arms. "All right. Cutting power in five, four, three - "

Lintel folded his mechanical arms against the far wall, and Nick switched off the internal power to the nanites. The moving, pulsing mass within the engine went still and limp, and the lights in the tube clicked off.

Nick pulled his hands out of the gloves and took off his headset. "Well," he said, grinning at the squirrel behind him, "guess we didn't see that coming, did we?"

"No," said the squirrel, whose name was Barlet. He was a gray squirrel, and despite his color, was the youngest member of the staff. "Touis said give it two hours and try it again."

Lintel stepped around the tube, wiping his sweaty paws on his labcoat. "Sorry Nick, Barlet," he said, flattening his ears. "I got nervous and it set off my field."

Barlet looked at Nick, expecting the human to get mad, but Nick only laughed. "We hadn't even brought in the chaos drive, and you go turn the thing on! We ought to build one that'd run off minor chaos fields." He checked his watch. "Too early for lunch. I'm gonna grab some coffee."

"I'll be over with Kray and Touis," said Lintel. "Have to let my field cool off." The otter walked away, shaking his head in disgust at himself.

Barlet followed Nick through the airlock and out to the office that the technicians had converted into a rec room. The tables, chairs and counter were built to Mobian scale, but Nick was five feet tall, and barely had to stoop to reach the coffeepot. "Want some?" he asked Barlet.

The squirrel shook his head. "No thanks. Um ..." He caught the end of his own bushy tail and ran his fingers through the fur. "How come you never get mad at us? Harold and John would get fighting mad if someone's chaos field messed things up."

Nick shrugged. "I grew up in Metrocard. I'm just used to Mobians and chaos stuff. Harold and John were raised human, and the prejudice is hard to overcome." Nick thought of some of the things humans did that were taboo in Mobian culture. He had once seen a woman stroke the fur of a Mobian tiger, only to have the tiger maul her in fury. You respected Mobians, because they had their own cultural rules, and if you broke them, the results were dire. He had grown up in a Mobian community, and their culture was second nature to him. Which was why he had worked in this lab for six years, outlasting the other human technicians.

He sat down in one of the little chairs, sipped his coffee and sighed. "Man, we've got to get that new facility."

Barlet poured himself a glass of water and sat down across from Nick. "Yeah. All these nanotech experiments to do, and only one airlock chamber."

"Dang red tape," muttered Nick. "We shouldn't have gone to GUN. TerraUnited was interested, too."

This was a common topic of complaint.

"Is three airlock rooms such a big thing to ask?" Nick went on. "They have twenty at the nanotech hospital in Rio Del Fuego."

Barlet growled sympathetically.

The outer door opened and Touis the chipmunk looked in. He was the head scientist, and also the shortest person in the lab. "There you are," he said, looking at the gray squirrel and human. "Get in here, we're having a meeting. Something big's come up, and I mean big."

Nick and Barlet exchanged glances and jumped up.

The meeting room was another converted office, and it was a squeeze for the five of them. Nick scrunched himself into a chair against the wall and watched as the Mobians did the same, climbing over the seats to reach their places. Touis scurried under the table and climbed into his chair from below.

"Okay," said the chipmunk, setting a sheet of paper on the table. It was covered in large, untidy handwriting. "I received a phonecall ten minutes ago, about our GUN contract."

Everyone straightened.

Touis's eyes sparkled with excitement. "They've finally processed our paperwork, and decided to grant us a new facility!"

The scientists whooped and cheered, Nick among them.

Touis raised a paw for silence. "Hold on, there's more." They quieted down, and Touis read from his notes. "The facility is located on Deimos Island, about two hour's flight off the coast of Sapphire City. It has four airlock chambers - "

He was interrupted by more cheering. When it died down, he went on, "Four airlock chambers, six thousand square feet of lab space, and five pressurized nanotech manipulation chambers. The computer system was designed exclusively for the facility."

"Dang!" exclaimed Kray, who was an opossum with long fangs. "How'd we wind up with a place as nice as that?"

"Well, that's all on one condition," said Touis. "We postpone our projects for three months, and give our attention to a top-secret GUN project."

There was a brief silence. Then Lintel said, "Can we do that? I thought we'd lose the grant money if we let the nanoswarms die."

"I've got that covered," said Touis. "All our technicians would stay here until the three months are up. They'd look after our projects, and after three months we'd ship everything out to the Deimos facility."

"No techs?" said Barlet. "You mean we'd have to do everything ourselves?"

"No, no," said Touis, shaking his head. "GUN offered to provide specialists for us. So nothing classified gets out, you know."

"What about pay?" said Nick. "The commute itself can't be cheap."

"GUN is offering us an eight million dollar contract, human currency," said Touis. "They want this project completed as soon as possible. They didn't tell me the specifics."

The group exchanged glances. Kray crossed his arms. "Why do they have to dump us on an island? Are we building a bomb?"

Touis shrugged. "It's a bigger facility. I wouldn't care if it was built on a glacier in North Mobius, as long as it had those airlock chambers."

"Well, I'm for it," said Nick. "November, December, January - we'd be working on our chaos engine again by February. Not a bad way to spend the winter, in my opinion."

Lintel and Barlet nodded, but Kray still looked skeptical. "I just wish I knew why they'd use us five for a top-secret project. Why us? Why not one of those bigger laboratories?"

"We're qualified," said Touis, looking affronted. "And maybe it's because we got our paperwork in so long ago."

Kray was silent a long moment, his ears flicking up and down. Finally he sighed and said, "Fine, let's go for it. It's only three months, after all."

Nick left the lab that evening, pulling on his coat as he stepped onto the wet sidewalk. The Analytech lab was crammed in a building with three other businesses, and no signs or numbers distinguished it from the doorways on either side. Nanotech was so dangerous that they couldn't publicize their research for fear of losing the facility they did have. And why they absolutely had to have airlock labs, in case of a nanoswarm spill.

The rain beat on his face as he walked down the street, and he pulled his hood over his head with a shiver. Sapphire City's winters were cold and wet, for it was too far south to receive snow, but too far north for the warm, tropical storms of the equator.

He walked along, head bowed, watching the reflections of the streetlights in the sidewalk. He saw something move, and lifted his head to see a black hedgehog twenty feet away. His spines were soaked and dripping, and he stared at Nick as if surprised to see another living being out in the rain. Nick waved, and to his astonishment, the hedgehog vanished into thin air. Nick ran to the place where the hedgehog had been, but there was no trace of him. Nick rubbed his eyes. "I guess I've been working harder than I thought."

He heard quiet footsteps behind him and turned. Then he gasped and flattened himself against the wall as a Mobian-sized robot ran past. Nick glimpsed red paint, green eyes and - knives? - then the robot was gone as quietly as it had come.

Nick bolted for the bus stop, hoping to see nothing else so strange.

Shadow reappeared in one of the dark, frigid hallways of Mecha's hideout, dropped to all fours and shook himself, spattering the walls with spray. Then he rose to his feet and brushed water off his metal arm and glass eye. This was his penalty for needing exercise so badly. He liked Sapphire City because of the dangers it offered, and he often teleported there without telling Mecha. But tonight, not only had it been pouring rain, but Robo Knux had ...

Shadow paused, thinking. Robo Knux hadn't done anything except talk to him ... and pursue him when he ran, of course ... but Robo Knux had not tried to hurt him.

Shadow slipped down the hall to his room, took a towel off the shelf above his cot and dried himself thoroughly. He ran Robo Knux's words through his head as he worked.

"My purpose is to destroy things. Metal Sonic's is to destroy Sonic. What is your purpose, Shadow? Why did they build you up there on the ARK? The ultimate lifeform, they called you. What's the point of all that if you're not supposed to do something?"

Shadow had said, "Why should I listen to you? You've tried to kill me every single time we've met."

"You didn't answer my question," Robo Knux purred. "Go ask Mecha what your purpose is. He won't be able to tell you."

Shadow had thought about this. It was the same argument that Rouge had blindsided him with back on the ARK. "What are you, Shadow?" He had come to grips with who he was and moved on, but his self-confidence was shaky. And along came Robo Knux to chip away even more of it.

Robo Knux had said, "I thought you might like to know that I've discovered your purpose. Not that I'm going to tell you what it is. Go on, run from me! Living life without a purpose is worse than being an assassin robot."

Shadow hung up his towel to dry, picked up a comb and ran it through his spines. He didn't want Mecha to know that he had been out. Shadow had been forced to learn how to groom himself, for back on the ARK Maria and the scientists had cared for him. He had been freed from cryogenic freeze barely a week before he had 'died'. Mecha knew nothing about grooming fur, never having had any, so Shadow was forced to conduct research in secret, observing how other Mobians cared for themselves. He was becoming adept at it, he thought, looking at his sleek reflection in a handmirror.

His thoughts looped back to Robo Knux. "What is your purpose, Shadow?" Perhaps he could ask Mecha without telling him that Robo Knux had posed the question.

Shadow skated down the hallways, passed through two doors, and entered the light and warmth of the control room. Mecha was pacing back and forth before the computer consoles. Two screens displayed maps, and the third contained text. Nox and Aleda were sitting in the corner amid lockblocks of all shapes and sizes, building a tower. Nox gave Shadow a knowing look as he entered, but said nothing. Nox knew about Shadow leaving the base on the sly, and often covered for him.

Shadow stood in front of a heating vent, warming his natural hand. Mecha ignored him and continued pacing back and forth, eyes half-closed, thinking out some new problem.

"Mecha," said Shadow over the network, "can I talk to you for a moment?"

Mecha looked up. "Hello, Shadow. I did not notice you come in. What is it?"

Shadow looked sidelong at Aleda, who was industriously adding a wing to the tower. "Can she hear us?"

Mecha shot Aleda a glance, and she met his gaze with an impish look. "Yes," he said. Aloud he said, "Aleda, Nox, please leave this room for a while."

Nox looked outraged, but Aleda said, "He doesn't want me eavesdropping. I can't hear the network from twenty feet away, so we'll go next door." She gave Mecha one of his own dirty looks, and the chao pattered out and closed the door.

"All right, what?" said Mecha quietly.

Shadow sat down in one of the console chairs and fixed his red eyes on his master. "I was thinking ... what is my purpose for living?"

Mecha gazed at him for a long moment, then blinked and raised a hand to his forehead. "Shadow, if I knew your purpose, I would know my own. What is the reason for anyone to live? Why does life exist at all? These are the questions I have been striving to answer for so long."

Shadow's mouth curled in a cynical smile. "I'm afraid that I was thinking more of my birth on the ARK. I am the ultimate lifeform - or a type of one. What does that mean?"

Mecha shrugged and turned to study the maps on the screens without answering.

Shadow dug his robot claws into the padding on the chair. "I was being trained to use chaos energy in new ways. But my training was interrupted by GUN. Is that my purpose? To use chaos energy? But even Sonic can do that."

Mecha turned his head and studied Shadow, as if considering how to reply. "Perhaps I should tell you ... but it is a terrible thing to bear."

Shadow's natural ear pricked forward. "What?"

Mecha looked down at the console and traced a pattern with one claw. "One aspect of the Ultimate Lifeform project was to achieve immortality. One of the prototypes could live in any environment. The other ... escaped the second law of thermodynamics."

Shadow cocked his head, trying to understand.

Mecha glanced at him. "Your body cannot wear out, Shadow. They mingled your DNA with that of a cat whose chaos field was so powerful that it granted him impossibly long life. He may have also extended it through other means, as well. Dr. Gerald inserted a gene to age you prematurely, a gene which was damaged by fifty years of cryogenic freeze. You began to age. But then Nox healed you when he revived you. Your body is built in such a way that the effects of aging were removed and the artificial gene itself was destroyed."

Shadow stared, and Mecha returned his gaze.

Mecha continued, "You are the first survivor of my Mecha-Fusion projects, because of this. The addition of healing nanites to your bloodstream accelerates this process even more."

Shadow stared blankly at the wall, digesting this information. "I'll never die of old age," he thought. "But I can be killed. I'm not immortal, I'm just ... ageless." For a moment the thought exhilarated him, then it depressed him. He would outlive everyone on this planet.

Mecha turned away. "As I said, it is a great load to bear. I would have preferred not to tell you."

"Are you ageless, too?" said Shadow.

Mecha shrugged. "Who can tell? Can a creature die who was never really alive?" The cynicism that was always below the surface crept into his voice. "You asked about purpose. My purpose was to destroy Sssssonic. Yet he defeated me! What purpose is left for me now? Why bother to continue my futile existence?"

He was warming up to go on a tirade, so Shadow headed him off. "What are these maps for?"

Mecha looked at them, scowling. "Oh. I am researching possible centers of knowledge where I can find data on the Master Designer."

Shadow examined the nearest one. Road maps. "Mecha, are we going to journey to these locations?"

"I see no other way to reach them," said Mecha sarcastically. "At the moment, my only purpose is to locate the Master Designer and discuss copyright infringement penalties."

"Assuming he exists," muttered Shadow.

Mecha gave him a poisonous look. "Of course he exists. How could this world exist unless someone built it?"

Shadow lowered his head sullenly. "Maria prayed to a God all the time. He sounds a lot like your Master Designer. If he exists, why did he let them kill her?"

Mecha and Shadow stared at each other for a frigid second. Mecha said, "I do not have an answer for that."

"Sure," said Shadow. "I'll come with you, but I don't think there is a Master Designer. You're wasting your time."

"Then I am wasting it," snapped Mecha. "If there is no Master Designer, then yes, my quest is in vain. But if there is a Master Designer, then I am going to do everything in my power to contact him. Because I have been without meaning in my existence, and this quest returns meaning to it again. Or perhaps you would prefer it if I returned to seeking to terminate my existence?"

"No," said Shadow, rising to his feet. "You answered my question, thanks." He left through the outer door.

The chao were listening to this conversation through a crack in the side door, for their owners didn't bother to use wireless communications. "Is Mecha looking for God?" Aleda whispered.

"Yes," Nox whispered back. "He thinks he can find God on Mobius somewhere."

"Can you see God?" said Aleda doubtfully.

"Mecha seems to think so," said Nox. "I hope we get to go. I'd love to see what Mecha turns up."

"Me too!" Aleda whispered, clapping her paws. "What if God IS on Mobius somewhere?"

"I'm sure he is," Nox replied. "We'll just have to see what happens."

Tails clipped the final wire into place and sat back on his heels to survey his work. He had attached all the communication wires and conduits to the casing of the bio-nano-brain. It was covered in a nest of green, white and red wires, resting crosswise across the space where the brain would fit into the Tornado. Tails took a voltage tester from his toolbox and tested each connection, making adjustments as he went. He was shivering with excitement and cold; it was almost midnight, and it was so cold outside that the heater couldn't repel it anymore.

But Tails couldn't wait until morning. He had to get the brain attached tonight and see if all that voice recognition software worked. The brain had slurped up the operating system he had given it, and Tails had a suspicion that the brain didn't need it. But he had installed the other programs easy enough, and now Tails was plugging in what amounted to its body.

He carefully set the computer-brain's casing down into its compartment, fitting the wires into their protective slots. Then he screwed everything down and reached for the power button with trembling fingers.

The Tornado's tiny screen flicked on in the cockpit, and Tails climbed into the cold seat and sat looking at the screen, hugging himself and trying not to let his teeth chatter. "Tornado," he said into the microphone, "run program. Activation code terra banaka sich motha questaloph." It sounded vaguely Cocytan, Tails thought.

The screen scrolled rapidly through sheets of numbers, then it changed to display a single question. "User ready?"

"User is ready," Tails said.

The screen went blank, and a bland, vaguely masculine voice said through the speaker, "User identification ready. State your name."

Without thinking, he said, "Tails."

"Tails," said the computer.

"No, wait, Miles Prower!" said Tails, but the process had already moved on.

"Primary use of this unit - civilian or military?"

"Military," said Tails, forgetting even to shiver and watching the code flash past on the screen.

"Unit type: land-based, water-based, air-based?"

Tails hesitated, then said, "All."

The code flashed past for several minutes, and he felt the Tornado vibrate as its systems activated. He wondered if this computer could handle a transforming machine, and blew on his cold hands.

"Standby," said the computer. "Accessing design schematics of craft Tornado."

Tails waited, and after a moment the screen went blank.

"Query," it said. "Is Tornado in land-based mode at present?"

"Yes," said Tails.

More flashing code. Then the Tornado said, "Query. Amphibious mode is not operational. Is it damaged?"

"No," said Tails. "It doesn't work right."

The Tornado 'thought' about this, and asked several more questions about its internal workings that Tails found almost funny. It was as if someone was inspecting his machinery and figuring out how it worked from the inside.

Suddenly the screen blinked red. "Critical error," said the computer voice. "Visual sensor array not found."

"Visual sensor array?" said Tails in confusion. "But there isn't one."

"Sensor array is critical to operation," said the Tornado.

Tails shook his head. "No, this machine is meant for a pilot. The pilot is the visual sensors."

"Negative," said the computer with the vaguest of angry inflections. "Scans indicate that this unit is capable of independent action. Absence of visual sensors presents a critical error."

For a moment Tails was frightened. He hadn't expected the Tornado to run around on its own! He had a fleeting vision of his walker striding unmanned around Knothole, shooting people and launching missiles. He clenched his fists. "No!" he said. "You are not to act independently without a direct order from the user. Do you understand?"

The red error vanished and code resumed flickering past. "Affirmative," said the Tornado. "User is registered as visual sensor array in absence of necessary systems."

"What about independent action?" Tails said, willing himself not to shiver. His fear had sent a chill through his body that was colder than any frost.

The Tornado replied, "User command required for independent action."

Tails breathed a sigh of relief.

"Systems will commence internal diagnostics," said the Tornado. "Please wait."

Tails climbed out of the cockpit and checked his fat instruction manual. The internal diagnostics took place while the nanites built the proper paths to allow control of the machine. It took a minimum of twelve hours. Perfect. Tails turned off the heater and the lights, left his workshop and sprinted through the cold night to his hut. He whisked inside, turned on the heater there, pulled off his shoes and dove into his bed, wrapping the blankets around himself. It took him a long time to warm up, but as soon as feeling returned to his fingers and toes, he was out like a light.

A cold dawn spread over the world, and Nicholas Karabian sat hunched up in the helicopter seat, watching the endless wrinkled sea passing by below. His hands were buried in the pockets of his jacket, fingering the fifteen cents that had been there for years. Lintel and Kray were strapped into the seats beside him, and Barlet and Touis were in the back seats, all with their fur fluffed out and tails wrapped around their legs. Nick was the only one tall enough to see out the windows.

It was a two-hour flight to Deimos Island, and all five of them had arrived at the helipad at four o' clock that morning. Barlet and Lintel were asleep, chins resting on their chests. Nick kept staring at the horizon, warding off airsickness. He hated long car rides, and long air-rides were even worse. The helicopter swayed gently and constantly, and he felt his stomach churning. He kept his eyes on the horizon and his mouth clamped shut.

After a long, indefinite period of watching the sun's light brighten the ocean from gray to blue, Nick realized that there was a dark smudge on the horizon ahead of them. He straightened and craned his neck, squinting. Yes, it was land, and his stomach felt better immediately. He watched the island grow clearer and darker. It looked like the shoreline was all cliffs, and beyond those was a tangled mass of trees. Oh well, no sunbathing on this island, he thought with a wry smile. Not that you could get much of a tan in November anyway.

"Kray," he said softly, "you can see Deimos Island. We're almost there."

The opossum gave him a weak smile. His eyes were glazed, and Nick knew that he wasn't the only airsick passenger. Kray elbowed Lintel and hissed, "Wake up, we're almost there."

The otter opened his eyes. "What? We are?"

The pilot's voice spoke over the intercom, startling them all. "Welcome to Deimos Island, folks! The lab facilities are on the north end, which is also the only harbor on the island. I'll be making trips once every two weeks to haul in supplies, but there's a couple speedboats down there, I've heard. All right, we've been cleared to land, so fasten your seatbelts."

As the scientists moved to obey, Touis said, "You know, seventy percent of all airline accidents occur at takeoff and landing."

"Thanks, I needed to know that," muttered Nick, tightening his seatbelt.

"Yeah," added Lintel, grinning. "Most of them take place in clear weather, too."

Barlet, Kray and Nick exchanged glances and gripped their seats.

But despite their fears, the helicopter swept in over the island and descended to a helipad with no problems. The helipad was built on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean, and Nick glimpsed the silver roof of the laboratory through the trees. They touched down with a bump, and the engines cut to an idle. The pilot jumped out and opened the doors, and the scientists unbuckled, grabbed their suitcases from the overhead racks, and stepped out into the wind.

A strong wind was blowing off the ocean, and Nick squinted against the cold and drew a deep breath, feeling his airsickness subside. The air smelled clean and wet, and the helipad was so high that he could see for miles up and down the island's coast. The tide was rolling in and crashing against the cliffs, sending up plumes of white foam hundreds of feet, and Nick stared, fascinated by the sheer violence.

Touis prodded him, and Nick woke up and turned. His little group was standing close together, the wind blowing their fur backwards, trying not to look bewildered. Beyond them, a wide asphalt road led away from the helipad, vanishing into the trees in the direction of the lab building. Walking up this road was a single human in a black GUN uniform. "Welcoming committee," Nick muttered under his breath, and moved toward him. Touis was already trotting to meet the human, and the other three padded behind, carrying their suitcases and blinking in the constant wind.

"Welcome to Deimos Island," said the human, extending a hand to each of them in turn. Despite the uniform, he looked friendly enough - red hair, blue eyes, freckles. "Come with me," he said. "Windy enough for you?"

The group muttered that it was.

"Get used to it," said the officer. "Windiest spot in two hundred miles. I'm Sergeant Kenneth Jackson. Come with me, I'll show you your new facility."

He led the way with a quick, military step, and the scientists hurried to keep up. The road sloped downhill, inland, and trees rose up on either side. They were the same types that grew in Sapphire City - elms, beeches, eucalyptus - but these were bent from the wind, and only grew leaves on one side. Nick wondered if windsurfing was possible out here, then remembered the cliffs with the ocean booming against them. Probably not.

The further they walked, the more the wind was broken by the trees, and when they reached the laboratory it had dropped to a breeze. The lab was actually four single-story buildings, each adjoining the largest central structure. It was white with brown trim, and there were no windows. But three of the buildings had domed skylights, the glass reinforced with steel crossbracing.

The sergeant stopped, and Nick realized that they had reached a fence. He looked up at it with a sense of foreboding, for it was eight feet of chain link with razor wire ringing the top. The sergeant passed a keycard through a slot in the gate, and it rolled open. "You'll each be issued one of these," he said, holding up the keycard.

"What's the fence for?" asked Kray.

"Protection," said the sergeant, walking on. The Mobians and human exchanged glances. They were on a rocky, uninhabited island. Protection from what?

The gate clanged shut behind them, and they walked up a long driveway toward the entrance. Once there, the sergeant swiped his keycard through another slot, and the doors swung open with a whoosh of air. Inside was a lobby painted a bright, cheerful yellow, and four short hallways branched off it with an airlock chamber at the end of each. "All right!" said Barlet under his breath, and the others nodded, trying not to grin.

They toured the facility quickly. The main lab was pressurized, and contained three nanotech vacuum chambers. The three smaller airlock rooms were also labs, and contained the two other vacuum chambers, as well as a sophisticated computer control room. The north wing housed a rec room and a dormitory, and a kitchenette stocked with food.

But one thing bothered Nick. The facility was empty except for themselves. "Where are the specialists?" he asked the sergeant as they arrived back in the lobby. "I thought GUN was providing the extra help?"

The sergeant checked his watch. "They'll be arriving in ten to twenty minutes on the next helicopter. I have to leave now. When the new officer arrives, he'll debrief you on your project. Goodbye." He left, striding back up toward the helicopter pad.

The doors swung closed and locked with a click of finality. The others looked at Touis. "Okay," said Kray, "what have you gotten us into here?"

Touis spread his arms. "What's the problem? This place is great! Look at all the room!"

"This place is a prison," said Lintel, crossing his arms. "Did you see that fence and those cliffs?"

"Eh, so what?" said Touis. "They gave us what we asked for. I'm sure this will all be cleared up when the next helicopter gets in."

"In ten minutes," said Nick, checking his watch. "I'd like to know what they're protecting us from on an empty island."

"It's so we don't try to leave," said Kray. The opossum was pacing back and forth in front of the door, wringing his hands. "They're gonna keep us trapped in here, I know it. I don't like traps. When you're trapped, they do bad things to you." He pulled the glove off his right hand and held up his hand. It was made of cold gleaming metal, each joint moving seamlessly.

The others stared at him. Touis stepped forward. "Put that glove back on, Kray. Get ahold of yourself. This isn't Robotropolis, and there's no need to panic." He turned to face the others. "What are you, cubs? This is a military installation! They're protecting their investment, and they sure aren't going to let anything happen to us."

Kray sullenly pulled his glove back on, and there was an uncomfortable silence. It was broken by a click from outside, and the whoosh as the electronic doors swung open. They turned to face the rush of fresh air, and found themselves face to face with four robots.

They were Mobian-sized, had round bodies and gangly arms and legs, and their heads were flat panels on top with a pair of glowing yellow eyes shining from the fronts.

The scientists backed away, staring. The robots entered the room, moving with swift, jerky movements, and stood in a row. A fifth figure stepped through the door behind the robots, and the doors closed behind him. A human, heavyset and bald, but sporting an enormous red mustache. The scientists recognized him from pictures, or in Kray's case, tortured remnants of nightmare memories.

"Hello," said Dr. Robotnik. "Glad to see you made it." He was greeted by stunned silence. He grinned. "I appreciate the welcome, really, I do."

"You ... you're working for GUN?" said Nick hoarsely.

Robotnik looked at Nick, and his brows drew together in a frown. "I didn't know there were any humans on the roster." He waved a hand. "Not that it matters. I am Dr. Robotnik, and no, I am not working for GUN. In this case, they are working for me. These robots here are E-200s, the miniature series of my E-100 line. You will find them more practical than live technicians, because robots don't make mistakes."

"You're overseeing the lab?" said Touis, trying not to stare.

"Yes," said Robotnik, smiling. "You see, I have two projects to complete, but I lack the skills myself to complete them. You'll be compensated for your time, of course." He stepped forwards, and the scientists backed away from him as if he was some kind of germ.

Robotnik stepped up to the airlock leading to lab 1 and said, "Come with me, and I'll show you what we'll be working on." He paused, looking at them. "Do any of you have active chaos fields?"

Lintel shakily raised a paw.

"Good," said Robotnik. "You'll be particularly interested in this project." He stepped into the airlock chamber, and one by one the scientists followed, feeling as if they had just sold their souls to the devil.

"Chaos relocate!"

The green chaos emerald sparkled and whipped Sonic instantaneously through the chaos field, setting him down inside a warehouse filled with crates and boxes. Sonic slung the bag he was carrying into the proper crate, held up his emerald and said, "Chaos relocate." He warped back to the warehouse in New Mobitropolis, picked up another bag, and repeated the process.

After the fifth trip, Sonic slung a bag over his shoulder and darted out of the door. It was time he made the trip to Riverbase on foot and let this accumulated energy run out of his chaos field. Besides, he wanted to run, and too much teleporting muddled his thoughts and made him sleepy.

He left the road and turned onto the dirt road parallel to the highway that he had worn himself by constant travel. He poured on the speed, his chaos field lifting him slightly above the ground and repelling all particles in the air around him, so he was effectively travelling like a bullet in a bubble of air.

He had thought that he had forgotten about his brief sojourn in the future. He had put it out of his mind and forbade himself to think about it, because after all, that future no longer existed. He had changed it. Right?

But mention of Fealor Nash had brought it all back. Today Sonic had accompanied Sally to her office and met Nash, her new aide. Nash remembered Sonic from the biotic war, and tentatively greeted Sonic as if hoping that Sonic had stopped hating him. Sonic greeted him coldly and left a few minutes later, and had been working like fury ever since. Nash wasn't evil yet, and might never be. But Sonic's memories of the future were too horrible to forget. As he ran, they danced before his mind's eye all over again.

A young orange hedgehog named Jason. Sonic's own son. A young echidna missing an eye, Knuckles's son and Jason's best friend. Nash bending over Sonic and hissing about murder and the eighth chaos emerald. Nash holding the injured Jason and pitching him through a time portal to the roboticizer ...

A sonic boom echoed over the countryside as Sonic broke the sound barrier. He ran faster and faster, breathing through his teeth, feeling the terror, hatred and grief all over again. It couldn't come true, it couldn't! Nash couldn't rise to power, Sonic wouldn't let him! Sonic would kill him first!

Riverbase came into sight on the horizon, and Sonic began slowing down, wishing it was further so he could run longer. He didn't know what to do about Nash, and just looking at the cougar brought everything crashing back. No wonder the Time Rippers had been upset, because Sonic shouldn't have seen his own future, particularly not one that he had changed. Without the eighth chaos emerald, Nash was powerless.

What made the situation so perplexing was that Sonic could tell no one. Least of all Sally, and she was the one he wanted to tell the most. But how could he breach the topic? "Hi Sally, I know we're not married yet, but I want to tell you about our future son..." Yeah, right. She'd flip out, or think that HE'D flipped out.

The only person who had been there with him was Zephyer, and they had agreed long ago not to talk about what they had seen and done. Was she stressing like this, too? After all, it was her son who found the eighth chaos emerald in the first place. And caused Zephyer and Knuckles to die. Knowing how you might die had to be worse than encountering Robotnik's future replacement. But if Zephyer was going to have a baby, she hadn't mentioned it, and Sonic had a feeling that she would. Because that child was her potential link to a very bad future.

Sonic skidded to a halt in a cloud of dust, opened the door to the post office warehouse, waved to the Mobians sorting mail, and slung his sack into the crate. Then he trotted back outside and ran north, back towards New Mobitropolis. He accelerated even faster without the weight of the mailbag to slow him down, and broke the sound barrier within a minute.

It was torment to look the future straight in the eye and pretend to ignore it. Here was Nash, and Sonic had seen what Nash might become. And he had also seen himself married and with a family, which held its own sort of terror. Sonic loved Sally and wanted to marry her, but his glimpse of the future had paralyzed him. If he went ahead with it, was he bringing about the downfall of his whole world? But Sally had sacrificed so much for him ... he couldn't just throw that all away. For better or worse and all that, and he had already seen the worst. And if he didn't marry her, then he would never see Jason again. Sonic did want to see him again, if only so he could erase the little tombstone with the ID number of an orange hedgehog who had died shortly after deroboticization ...

He dashed the tears out of his eyes and slowed down as he approached New Mobitropolis's city limits. The future had tainted the present, and he couldn't escape it. But he couldn't let fear dictate his actions. He had changed that future. It might still be possible, but there were other futures open to him now. He thought of the alternate future that he had glimpsed, the one where they had all survived. That was the one he had to hope for.

Sonic ran in a big circle until he could stop without skidding, then re-entered the post office and snatched his chaos emerald out of a locker. He would teleport for a while, because he wouldn't have time to worry.

Aleda pushed hard against the computer console, and flopped down in the swivel chair as it spun around and around. She watched the world revolve around her, gradually slowing down. Metal Sonic was folding a blanket on the floor, and watched her with a look of disdain. As she stopped spinning, he shook his head and resumed folding the blanket. "What's the matter, Mecha?" she said.

"Nothing," he replied. He compressed the blanket into a tiny square and stowed it in a canvas backpack.

Aleda bounded out of the chair to help, but hit the floor and fell over, finding to her dismay that the world was still spinning.

Mecha smirked. "I recommend you remain still for several minutes until the fluid in your inner ear has stabilized."

"No, I can walk," said Aleda, getting up and staggering up to Mecha. "Where did you get that backpack?"

"Storage," said Mecha. "We are going on a journey and must carry supplies."

Aleda swarmed up the side of the pack and climbed inside. "Ooo, can I ride in here?" she begged, lifting the flap and looking out at Mecha.

"Perhaps," he said, picking her up and setting her on one of his shoulder-plates. "Stay there for now. I must finish packing."

Aleda hooked her claws under the edge of the plate to anchor herself, and rode along on Mecha's shoulder as he moved in and out of the room, collecting various items and arranging them in his pack. She liked sitting there, so close to his face, even when he stooped or turned suddenly, almost unseating her. Among other things, she could talk to him as much as she wanted. "Are we going on a trip to find God?" she asked.

"The Master Designer," said Mecha, checking a map printout. "Whether he is God or not is irrelevant."

"So where are we going?" Aleda asked.

"There is a library in a town called Silvaline one hundred kilometers from here," said Mecha. "They have a collection of documents preserved from Mobius's first millennium. I wish to consult them."

"First mell - mill - meleninim?" said Aleda, trying to force her tongue to pronounce the syllables.

"First one thousand years," said Mecha in annoyance, folding the map and tucking it into his pack. "There have been many changes to the Mobian calender, and our current years are counted from the fall of the Golden Era, which lasted for thousands of years before that. No records survived the fall, however. At least, none that we can now read."

"Why?" said Aleda.

Mecha paused, eyes taking on a faraway look. "I haven't the time to recount Mobius's history to you, Aleda. The Golden Era ended and Mobius's geography was remade."

This tidbit of information nearly drove Aleda wild with curiosity, but Mecha had withdrawn into his own thoughts, and was obviously busy packing. So Aleda held her tongue and let her imagination run wild with images of maps rearranging themselves and oceans rolling away to reveal new lands beneath.

To her surprise, Mecha said, "You are unusually quiet."

"I was thinking," said Aleda. "About the Golden Era. Was everything made out of gold then?"

"No," said Mecha, reaching up to rub her head. "I know little about it, myself. That is why I must visit the library and read about it. I will share my findings with you."

"Okay," said Aleda. She closed her eyes and enjoyed his fingers on her head, and purred as she had when she was a baby. But now the purr had words. "Red-eyes, Red-eyes, I love you, my Red-eyes ..."

Mecha withdrew his hand and raised an eyebrow at her. "What?"

"Oh." Aleda stopped and blushed. "Sorry, I didn't know I was saying that."

"Red-eyes?" said Mecha, bemused. "Is that what you call me?"

"I made it up when I was little, and I didn't know your name," said Aleda, too embarrassed to look at him, and studying her paws instead. "You do have red eyes."

Mecha was silent for a moment, then said softly, "You may still call me that. But only when Shadow and Nox cannot hear."

She dared look at him and saw that he was smiling. "Okay."

The outer door opened, and Shadow entered, carrying a backpack in one hand and his orange chaos emerald in the other. Nox trotted at his heels. "Hello Master," said Shadow. "I've packed enough food for two weeks. Are you sure you don't want me to transport us using chaos control?"

Mecha raised both eyebrows. "Can you teleport to a place that you have never seen?"

"No," said Shadow, looking down.

"Exactly," said Mecha. "However, both of us were built for travelling at high speeds. I'm certain that we will manage."

"A hundred kilometers in the winter is a long way," said Shadow, fingering his orange gem. "I travelled like this last winter, and it's not easy. You and I risk freezing to death out there, to say nothing of the chao."

"I have given the matter much thought," said Mecha, eyes narrowing. "Do you doubt me?"

Shadow's ear grew pointed. "Yes, I do. Half the time you fail to take into consideration your own weaknesses. They're different now. You can't handle sub-zero temperatures anymore."

"Nor can you," said Mecha, his own ears flattening as he scowled. "I am more intelligent than you give me credit for, Shadow. There is a type of Mobian clothing manufactured for the climates we will be entering. Aside from conserving body heat, it will act as a disguise for certain physical characteristics." He held up one hand, curling his silver fingers.

"How will you acquire such supplies?" said Shadow.

Mecha plucked an object off the control panel and held it up. It was his debit card, which tapped into his bank account in Sapphire City. His funds came from his trades in the human stock market, at which Mecha had become adept. Money had never been one of Mecha's worries - his brain was a supercomputer, and making money was easy.

"Why don't you let me use that?" said Shadow, glaring.

Mecha set it down again. "I use it only when necessary, and it is not necessary for you to use it." His tone was cutting.

Shadow opened his mouth, changed his mind and said nothing, and stood in silence as Mecha continued to load his pack. Aleda watched the whole exchange without a word. Her mind was still growing, and she paid close attention to everything her beloved Mecha did. When he was silent, she was silent.

When Tails dragged himself out of bed at noon and stumbled into his workshop, he found Sonic there on his lunch break, deep in conversation with the Tornado.

As Tails pushed open the door, he saw Sonic sitting on an overturned barrel, a sandwich in one hand, facing the half-dismantled Tornado and saying, "Yeah, I don't fly so much anymore. I got enough to do with my feet on the ground. Oh, hi Tails! Tornado, Tails is here."

The plane's computer said, "Welcome, Tails. Your friend Sonic is fascinating."

Tails stared, open-mouthed, first at the Tornado, then at Sonic. "You've been talking to it? Like, really talking?"

"Sure," said Sonic, taking a bite of his sandwich. "It's not the brightest robot I've ever met, but it's up there. I came in looking for you, and it wanted to know who the heck I was and what I was doing here."

"I had to determine that he was not an enemy," said the Tornado.

Tails trotted up and climbed into the cockpit. The screen was flicking with code up one side, and the other side had a window open with 'User Profile: Sonic' written across it.

"You don't mind, do you?" said Sonic, watching him.

"No, no, it's fine," said Tails, still feeling amazed and bewildered. "I didn't expect it to learn so fast."

The Tornado said, "I have exceeded your expectations. Pleasantness."

"That's not a word," said Tails.

"It is now," said the Tornado with a touch of smugness.

Tails and Sonic exchanged an astonished look. "You shouldn't just make up words," said Sonic. "Pretty soon nobody will be able to understand you."

"Affirmative," said the Tornado.

Tails climbed out of the cockpit. "What are you doing here anyway, Sonic?"

"Looking for you, like I said," said Sonic, popping the last of his sandwich in his mouth and brushing crumbs off his hands. He picked up a catalog lying on a nearby shelf and thumbed through it. "I need your opinion." Sonic handed the catalog to Tails and pointed to the open page.

Jewelry, diamond rings. Tails looked up with a grin. "Rings, eh? For a certain Sally?"

"Yep," said Sonic, keeping a straight face. "I can't decide which one to order, and some of these I'll kind of have to save up for."

Tails couldn't stop grinning. "It's about time!"

"Yep," said Sonic, smirking. Then he looked at the rings, and his smile faded into a look of desolate fear.

Tails blinked. "Sonic, what's wrong?"

Sonic's quick smile returned. "Nothing, little bro. Just thinking of how much overtime I'll have to do."

Tails squinted at Sonic. He knew him well enough to tell when Sonic was hiding something, but Tails didn't press the matter. He looked at the catalog. "I think some of these would be too gaudy for Sally. She's not into fancy jewelry."

"I liked this one," said Sonic, pointing to an emerald with a tiny diamond set on either side. "You know, emeralds and all that. But do you think it's too flashy?"

Tails studied the picture. "I kinda like it. I can see her wearing that. But gee, it's the most expensive thing on this page!"

"I noticed," said Sonic with a wry smile. "I have about half of it saved already. I just couldn't decide which to get her."

Tails cocked his head. "When are you going to ask her?"

Sonic shrugged. "I have to get the ring first, and I want it to be a surprise. I'll think of something."

"Can I be there when you do it?" said Tails. "I want to see her face."

"Okay, I'll let you know beforehand," said Sonic, rolling up his catalog. "Thanks, little bro. I'd better get back to work. Bye, Tornado!"

"Goodbye, Sonic," said the biplane.

Sonic left, and Tails sat looking at his plane. "So I guess you finished diagnostics?"

"Affirmative," said the Tornado. "Query. Are there any more users who I must profile?"

"Why do you need to profile everyone?" asked Tails.

"Everyone not profiled is a potential threat," replied the plane. "This is a result of the Military setting."

Tails closed his eyes for a moment in dismay. "Tornado, most people you encounter are friends, not enemies. I don't enter combat much. And when I do, I mostly fight robots."

The Tornado didn't answer for several minutes, and Tails laced his fingers in his lap. Then it said, "Affirmative. Settings changed."

"Good," said Tails. "You're not allowed to use your weapons without user permission, either."

"Affirmative," said the Tornado, sounding disappointed. "Observation. If I possessed visual sensors, I could identify friend and foe without user input."

Tails sighed. "I don't have any, and the kind you need are really expensive."

"Affirmative," said the Tornado.

Tails sat looking at the biplane for a long moment, wondering where he could pick up a sensor array. Then he stood up, went to a dusty shelf in the back of his workshop and took down a box. Inside it were several chunks of rock, and one of them glowed deep green. Tails had mined these gems himself on the Floating Island, and he was loath to part with them. They were his own secret treasures. But he had spent every penny he had and was in debt for the Tornado's brain, and now it was time to dip into his savings. He pushed aside the glowing green stone and picked up a red stone that flashed in the light, but had no glow. It would be worth a lot more if he could get it cut. They had jewelry stores down in Riverbase ... he could assemble the Tornado and take it down there to train it. Then maybe he could hunt sensor arrays and price them ...

He smiled and took out the red stone, sliding the box back into place. "Hey Tornado," he said, "how would you like to go to Riverbase for a few days?"

Down south a storm system had moved in to pour more rain on Sapphire City. Far out to sea, a small island also received a deluge of rain, and the storm drove the ocean against the cliffs until the island echoed with the crashing, thundering surf.

The five scientists had received keycards to the outer doors and fence, and could come and go as they chose. But aside from a couple of trips out to the edge of the cliffs, the howling wind kept them indoors. Nick and Lintel both tried to find the harbor where the speedboats were kept, but the road was cut into the side of the cliffs, and the sea had turned it wet and slick as oil, and neither of them dared venture down it.

Then the storm blew in, and all outdoors was a roaring tempest with so much rain that it almost drowned Barlet when he opened the outer doors to look out. So the scientists remained in the lab, unwilling prisoners of the elements and Dr. Robotnik.

Nick had to admit that working with Robotnik was amazing. This old man could do things with machines and numbers that Nick had never thought possible. The first day, Robotnik inserted a disk into the main computer and called up a series of schematics on screen.

"This is a type of robot," Robotnik told his captive audience. "One of my older designs, it is nonetheless highly successful." He lectured them on the finer points of its construction and central processor for a while, then loaded a second set of schematics. He layered this over the previous design and said, "These are third-party upgrades that this unit has received. Some have enhanced its effectiveness, while others hamper it."

Nick felt Kray poke him in the back. Nick glanced at him and saw that the opossum had made a gun-shape out of his thumb and forefinger, and nodded at the screen. Nick nodded back. They were looking at a walking arsenal. This robot was armed with a flamethrower, a rocket launcher, two different types of lasers, and an item connected to the fusion core that was blanked out, as if no schematics existed for it.

Robotnik noticed Nick's nod and said, "Do you have a question, Karabian?" His tone was condescending.

Nick swallowed and said, "Uh, yes. How can a unit this small carry all that weight?"

"It does so only with difficulty," said Robotnik, gazing at the schematics. "I believe it does not carry full ammunition at all times. Now, your task is to upgrade this unit as much as our present technology allows. What are your suggestions?"

The five studied the diagrams on the screen, and shifted their weight uneasily. Touis was the first to speak. "We could upgrade the eyes," he said, pointing to the screen. "I think the central processor could support the V-145 series optic sensors, maybe the V-149."

"But we'd have to modify them," said Lintel. "The V-145 is for medical use, not military. This unit needs infrared vision, at least."

Robotnik nodded. "Good. You'll start there. However, this is only a secondary project." He inserted another disk and paused, looking at the scientists. "What I am about to show you is top-secret. Word of it does not leave this lab, understand?"

They all nodded - they dealt with nanotechnology and were used to secrecy.

Robotnik opened the files. They displayed particle physics data, and diagrams of ... something. Nick couldn't figure out what he was seeing. Then the Mobians all inhaled in shock, and Nick saw the fur on Barlet's shoulders stand up.

"Elementary chaos physics," said Robotnik, watching their faces. "Particularly in relation to a chaos emerald. We have limited data on its effects on personal chaos fields and the body, and I hope to have more soon. As you will notice, some of the measured energy resembles radioactivity - "

"Uh, sir," said Touis, raising a paw. "What do you expect us to do with this data?"

Robotnik gave the chipmunk a scornful look. "I expect you to manufacture working chaos emeralds. That is enough information for now. Phase two of this project is strictly conjecture until we know if emerald manufacture is possible."

Nick swallowed. Genius or not, Robotnik was also power-mad. Nick hoped that they would live to get off this island.

There was a flash of light, and two hedgehogs appeared out of nowhere on a snowy hillside. They staggered on the slope, regained their balance and stood looking around, breathing the frosty air and blinking in the sunlight.

At first glance they were ordinary Mobians, bundled up in coats and snowpants, each wearing a backpack. But upon closer examination, one of them had black eyes and glowing red irises, and a silver muzzle that gleamed in the watery sunlight. The other had a cyborg eye and odd-looking hoverskates on his feet. Their backpacks moved, and a chao looked out of each, one chao black, the other blue.

Mecha pointed northwest. "We make for Silvaline. Their library of ancient writings is famous, and it survived the biotic war because the biotics were interested in victims, not spoils."

"Are you certain you don't want me to teleport?" whispered Shadow, his breath hanging in a haze before his face.

"No," growled Mecha. "You don't know the way, and the travel will take no more than two days." He walked down the hillside, settling his pack more comfortably on his shoulders, and Shadow followed him.

They picked their way down the rocky hillside, headed for the trees half a mile below them. The chao snuggled down in the backpacks where it was warmer, and Mecha took the lead, relishing the chance to stretch his synthetic muscles and feel the tingle of icy air in his lungs.

The slope became gentler as they reached the trees, and Mecha broke into a light jog. Shadow swept after him, his hoverskates sensing his increased speed and flicking on, the jets melting the snow as he passed over it. The pair wove in and out of the trees, not concerned about sticking together, for their radar contact was enough. There were other dangers, but Mecha and Shadow feared neither cold nor wild animals. They were a match for anything they might meet.

But the woods were quiet, the sort of deep, far-reaching silence of winter. The two travellers were alone in the uninhabited wilderness north and west of the Ice Cap mountains.

As Shadow skated, his breath coming swift and easy, he again thought of meeting Robo Knux in Sapphire City. "I know your purpose, Shadow." Shadow had asked Mecha what his purpose was, and although Mecha had told Shadow some disturbing things about himself, Mecha could not tell Shadow his purpose. Robo Knux was right.

Shadow dodged around a snow-capped boulder and ducked under low-hanging fir branches, receiving a dusting of snow on his head. He heard Nox laugh in delight and knew that his chao was enjoying the trip so far. Mecha was thirty yards to his left, running like a fleet ghost among the trees. Shadow might have mistaken him for Sonic if he hadn't known any better; Mecha ran like Sonic did, and was nearly as fast.

The trees thinned and a wide snow-covered meadow opened before them. Shadow automatically sped up and so did Mecha. Mecha glanced back at Shadow and smiled, and Shadow smiled, too. Now here was something he had never done before: racing his master! The pair flashed across the meadow, and for several minutes Shadow couldn't narrow Mecha's lead. Then the trees drew together again and they both had to slow down. The snow was deeper, as well, and Mecha found himself sinking to his knees while Shadow skated lightly over the top of the snow.

Aleda's voice rang over their network. "No fair, Shadow! Mecha's caught in the snow!"

"I am not," snapped Mecha through the network.

Shadow laughed, glad that the trees blocked him from Mecha's view. He skated on ahead, enjoying the illusion of solitude. Again he thought of Robo Knux with a touch of discomfort. Shadow should not have gone near him at all, not after Robo Knux had sworn to destroy Mecha and Shadow both. But once he was in range of communication, Robo Knux had said things that grabbed Shadow's attention.

"What is my purpose?" Shadow asked himself. To simply exist as an ageless being - that was no reason for existing. What did Robo Knux think Shadow's purpose was? Shadow frowned. Robo Knux probably thought that Shadow's purpose was a sharpening post for his claws. But Shadow couldn't help feeling curious. Robo Knux had said that he had found out Shadow's purpose ... the kind of statement that implied a bomb planted in your head, or a password tattooed to your back. Shadow knew that he shouldn't listen, that responding to Robo Knux was playing straight into his hands. But the sense of danger piqued his curiosity all the more.

If Mecha had been the one to tell Shadow that he knew his reason for existing, Shadow would have been politely interested. But because it was Robo Knux - a sworn enemy - Shadow's curiosity knew no bounds.

"Correct your trajectory, Shadow," Mecha said over the network, interrupting his thoughts. "You are drifting due north."

Shadow checked Mekion's compass and turned northwest again. It was hard to travel in a straight line through these trees, and he told Mecha so.

"Affirmative," said Mecha. "Consult your compass every ten minutes. That will keep you aligned. How is Nox coping with these temperatures?"

"Nox, you okay?" Shadow whispered over his shoulder.

"Roger!" came his chao's voice.

"He's fine," said Shadow over the network.

"Good," said Aleda's clear voice. "Because I'm freezing. Mecha, why aren't you warm like Shadow is?"

At first Shadow wondered how he could hear Aleda when she was so far away, then realized that Mecha's link with her broadcast her voice throughout the entire network.

"My systems operate at lower average temperatures than his do," Mecha replied. "Do you feel that your life is threatened by the ambient temperature?"

"No," said Aleda, sounding cross. "I just wish my life didn't have to be threatened before you did something about it."

Shadow could almost hear Mecha wince. "Yes. What would you have me do?"

"Nothing," said Aleda. "I'm fine."

"You just told me you were freezing!"

"I over exaggerated," said Aleda.

Shadow laughed so hard that he nearly collided with a tree. As he staggered around it, Nox demanded from his backpack, "What? What're you laughing at?"

"Aleda," said Shadow, still grinning. "She's too intelligent for her own good."

Shadow skated on, and Mecha ran with him, sometimes so close that they were in danger of colliding, other times a mile apart. The country sloped downhill, and the pine trees became mixed with other trees, their naked limbs creating a net against the cloudless sky. Here in the lowlands the snow was wetter and had melted away in wide, muddy patches, lingering in the shade under the trees. Dead grass and weeds stood in skeletal clumps, their leaves rattling in the breeze. Shadow grew uncomfortably warm under his coat, so he unzipped it and ran on, letting the cold air cool him. Even Mecha's mechanical body was warming up with the constant exercise, and Aleda's nest in his backpack lost its chill.

They ran for hours, stopping once in a while to catch their breaths. Shadow always tired first, because his muscles were organic and demanded more oxygen than he could supply. But even Mecha found that he, too, had to stop and gasp for air once in a while. While his artificial muscles did not burn oxygen as quickly as Shadow's, they did require oxygen and slowly developed a deficit until he had to stop and catch his breath.

The sun reached its zenith and descended toward the west, and the shadows of the hedgehogs lengthened behind them. The air grew colder until both Shadow and Mecha's breath steamed. "Shall we stop for the night?" Mecha asked, slowing down.

Shadow coasted up to him, his hoverskates shutting off. "I'm not tired," he said. "However, the chao need feeding, and I daresay we do, too."

"Affirmative," said Mecha, nodding. He slipped off his backpack and opened the top flap.

Aleda blinked up at him. "Are we there yet?"

"No," said Mecha. "This is a brief halt for refueling."

She climbed out of his pack as Shadow opened his own pack and let out Nox. Nox rubbed his eyes and looked around. They were on the edge of a tree-covered hill, and looking westward the country rolled away into a blue haze of trees. It was vast and utterly silent. Nox inhaled deeply and sighed. "I love being outside."

Aleda, on the other hand, took one look at the wide world and shrank close to Mecha's leg, hiding her eyes. "I don't like it," she whimpered. "It's too big and empty."

Mecha stepped away from her. "Move around. It will help. You have been in a tiny enclosed space all day." He walked around in a circle, and Aleda hurried after him, trying to look only at him or the ground and ignore the empty space around her. She had been hatched and raised in Mecha's underground base, and her world consisted of walls, a ceiling and a floor. This unbordered world terrified her. She had the terrible fear that something was about to attack her from out of all that space, and her brain couldn't process all the information her eyes were taking in. Thus when she looked up at the horizon, she saw only disjointed colors and shapes.

Shadow opened his pack and pulled out a package of freeze-dried rations. He ripped it open with the claws on his robot hand and gave it to Nox. Nox was watching Aleda. "Why's she scared of being outside?"

"This is only the second time in her life that she has been outside the base," whispered Shadow, pulling out more rations and setting them on a nearby stone. Nox shivered and began eating.

Mecha and Aleda walked up, and Mecha knelt and opened a package for Aleda. She squeezed between him and his pack on the ground, and only then could she eat, with the illusion of walls on either side of her.

Mecha picked up the last package of rations and opened it, and sat looking at it for several minutes. Eating was still a foreign concept to him, and the memory of throwing up after his new system was installed was hideously fresh in his mind. Intellectually, he knew that he must eat, and that doing so would not hurt him. But his instincts said otherwise, and he wondered if it was possible to travel to Silvaline before having to refuel. He checked his internal fuel gauges and knew that he couldn't do that. He would only last four more hours before running out of energy and collapsing.

Mecha slowly pulled out one of the hard, tasteless crackers in the ration pack, put it in his mouth, chewed and swallowed with the utmost concentration. If he wanted to be organic, he had to get used to things like this. Nearby, Shadow carefully kept his attention on his own meal, knowing that if he looked at Mecha, he would laugh his head off. He and Nox found the sight of Mecha eating so carefully to be hilarious, and they didn't look at each other or they would laugh. And if they laughed, Mecha had promised to maul them both.

The sun sank as they ate, and when they finished, the horizon was awash in red and orange, swirled with wispy clouds. The temperature was dropping, and Nox and Aleda began to shiver uncontrollably. Shadow was trembling a little, himself, as his metal half conducted cold into his warm living half. "Back in the pack," he told Nox, and bundled the chao into the pack and slung it on his shoulders.

Mecha did the same with Aleda and put on his own pack. He was shivering, too. "We'll need our infrared settings soon," said Mecha. He looked up at the sky, checking the satellite for directions with his internal computer. "We are halfway there," he told Shadow. "By midnight we will reach outlying settlements. Therefore be cautious."

Shadow nodded, jogging in place to warm up. "Affirmative, Master. Let's go!"

Shadow sprang away down the hill, and Mecha followed, knowing that if they stood still in the open any longer, they would overcool and freeze to death. It would be a cold night.

Sally and Sonic were watching the sun set. They stood at the edge of the Great Forest, looking westward at the fiery horizon. There, where once had been the dark cloud of smog that was Robotropolis, now was a sprinkling of warm yellow lights from New Mobitropolis.

"It's so beautiful," Sally whispered. She shivered under her overcoat, and Sonic put an arm around her.

"Yeah," he said, gazing at the lights. "Never thought I'd see it look like this again." He took one of her hands and said, "Sal, you're like ice! Where're your gloves?"

"I forgot them," she said, smiling. "On purpose. I was practicing with the chaos emerald." She dug into her coat pocket and pulled out the violet gem.

Sonic smiled. "I take it you still can't control it."

"No," said Sally, gazing at the gem a moment, then thrusting it back into her pocket. "I don't think I'm strong enough. The emerald just does whatever it wants."

"You'll learn," said Sonic, tightening his arm around her in a half-hug.

The pair were silent a moment, content to be together. The red and orange in the sky faded to pink and violet, and more lights appeared in the city. Sonic wished that he could propose right then, for the moment was perfect, but he was three paychecks away from being able to afford Sally's ring. Whoever heard of proposing without a ring? He would have to wait, but it was killing him. Sonic hated waiting for anything.

"Hey Sal," he said, "I have a hypothetical question."

She looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Okay."

Sonic motioned to the city lights. "Say you married some random guy. Would you want to live there, or in a little backwoods village in the forest?"

Sally laughed. "You make it sound like such a hard choice! Let's see. If I married some random guy, I'd want to go on living in Knothole. It's not far from the city, and it's a lot quieter." She gazed at Sonic, who was watching the horizon. "I spent the best years of my life there," she concluded.

He smiled and didn't answer, still without looking at her.

"Wasn't that the answer you wanted?" Sally asked.

Sonic shrugged. "I told you it was a hypothetical question. I have another one."

"Okay, shoot."

Sonic looked down. "Say you married some random guy, and you both lived in one-room huts. What would you want to do about that?"

Sally laughed again. "You're funny, Sonic."

He glanced at her. "Well?"

"I'd want to have a house built," she said. "Not a hut - a real Mobian house, with plenty of room and a big yard."

He nodded, and she saw his eyes glint with mischief as he looked away. He was pretending that he didn't care what she said, but he did care, very much. "Third question," he said, trying not to smile. "Say this random guy you married was well-nigh penniless and couldn't afford to build a hut, much less a house."

"Well," said Sally, putting an arm around him and slipping her cold hand into his warm one, "I'd tell this random guy that my job pays enough to support us, and I can pull some strings to get the house built."

"No," said Sonic, shaking his head. "You're not gonna support us. I will. I just haven't figured out how yet."

"Whoa," said Sally playfully. "Was that a hypothetical statement?"

"Uh, yeah," said Sonic, looking away. "Yeah, it was."

Sally was conscious that his spines were slowly piercing through the fabric of her coat sleeve. "Why all the questions? Got something on your mind?"

"Naw," said Sonic, shrugging. The motion drive his spines through her jacket into her arm, and Sally jerked away from him by reflex.

Sonic jumped, then saw that she was rubbing her arm. "Oh, Sal, I'm sorry - "

"It's my fault," she said, smiling. "I knew I shouldn't have reached across your back like that." She didn't tell him that she was bleeding under her coat.

Sonic ran a hand over his blue spines. "They're great for smashing stuff, but not much good for interacting with people. Let's go back - my winter fur hasn't grown in yet."

"Mine either," said Sally, nursing her arm and trying to look like she wasn't. "The sunset's gone, anyway."

They walked back down the path to the village, Sonic kicking himself for hurting her, and Sally kicking herself for being careless enough to let him hurt her.

Aleda awoke from a hazy dream to find that Mecha was shaking her with a metal hand so cold that it felt red-hot. She gasped and cringed, and he released her at once. "There, she's awake," he said over his shoulder to Shadow.

Aleda lay on her back, looking up at Mecha's glowing red eyes. The sky was full of stars; hard, frosty stars. Her whole body felt numb and weighted, and she felt herself dozing off again.

Mecha saw her eyes close and shook her roughly. "Aleda! You must stay awake!"

"I'm so sleepy," she mumbled.

Mecha cursed under his breath and looked from side to side, as if seeking some way to help her. "I'm not losing you again," he hissed through his teeth, and unzipped his coat. He picked her up in his frigid hands - she gasped at his touch - and tucked her inside of his coat. Underneath, his metal body was warm from running, and Aleda realized how cold she really was. She began to shiver violently, and Mecha zipped up his coat over her and stroked her through the fabric. She pressed herself flat against his chest, and listened to his quick, anxious breathing and the beating of his heart.

She heard him say to Shadow over the network, "She is nearly dead of hypothermia. How is Nox?"

"The same," came Shadow's voice. "I put him under my jacket, and he's ... he's not really awake."

"Neither is Aleda," said Mecha. "When the temperature reached minus five degrees, I knew we must check them. We are still twenty kilometers from Silvaline."

"We can't return them to our packs or they'll die," said Shadow. "And we have to keep moving or we'll die."

"Yes, I noticed that," said Mecha, and Aleda felt a fine tremor pass through him. "Let us run for a while. Keep Nox covered."

Aleda felt him turn and begin to run. Instead of being jostled inside the backpack, she was nestled securely inside Mecha's coat, and he kept one arm under her to support her as he ran. "Mecha," she said over the network, "would I have died?"

"Probably," he replied the same way. "You still might, if you fall asleep again. As I said, don't fall asleep."

This frightened Aleda even more than her agoraphobia. "I won't go to sleep," she told Mecha. "What about Nox? Is he okay?"

"Yes," said Shadow over the network. "He's finally awake and very cross."

"Let him be cross," said Mecha, sounding relieved. "If he's angry he's less inclined to fall asleep."

Aleda's paws and feet began to tingle and burn, and the pain made her twitch. "My feet hurt," she told Mecha through the network.

"Yes," he said. "Your blood is flowing through your cold fibers and nerve sensations will resume. Be glad for the pain. It will end shortly."

Why should I be glad for the pain? Aleda thought. It hurts! Maybe it's because it means I'm alive.

Slowly the tingling faded, and Aleda grew gloriously warm. She began to feel sleepy, and it scared her. "Mecha," she said, "can you unzip your coat a little so I can see out? I'm afraid I'll go to sleep again."

"Affirmative," he said, and unzipped his coat a few inches. She peered through the gap and received a blast of ice-cold air in her face, which snapped her wide awake at once. The sky was lit with a pale blue light from the stars, and the land lay about them in an indistinct jumble. Away to their right was a flicker of light that Aleda knew was Shadow's hoverskates. Looking out at the world from the safety of Mecha's arms made the vastness less frightening to her, and she was able to bear it.

"Are you cold, Mecha?" she asked.

"A little," he replied. "I am slightly uncomfortable, but my synthetic fibers are not as complex as those of a true organic, and thus can tolerate lower temperatures with few ill effects."

"Oh," said Aleda, wiping her eyes, which were watering from the cold wind. "So in other words, you're fine."

"Yes."

"How far is it to Silvaline?"

Mecha was silent a moment, consulting his internal map. "Fourteen kilometers. We will reach it shortly after dawn. Shadow, the maps of this region indicate a farming community ahead. Make a detour to the north."

"Yes Master," Shadow replied through the network, and Aleda saw his flickering shoes veer off. Mecha turned, too, and Aleda sensed they were travelling downhill.

"Why can't we just go through the farms?" Aleda asked. "Wouldn't it be faster?"

"Yes, it would," said Mecha, and hesitated. "We want to avoid detection because ... well, because of who I am."

"Who you are?" said Aleda, craning her neck to see his face. Mecha's eyes were fixed straight ahead, and his mouth was set in a firm line.

"Yes," he said. "In the past I ... did some things that earned me an unsavory reputation."

"Like what?"

Mecha didn't answer for several minutes, and Aleda waited, knowing that he would answer her even if it took him an hour to think of something to say.

"Aleda," he said at last, "I am what is called an assassin robot. I killed people at my master's command."

Aleda was silent. He had killed people? Her beloved red-eyes had killed people? No, he couldn't have. He was so nice! He was grouchy sometimes, of course, but so was she, and Shadow was grouchy sometimes, too. Mecha was an assassin robot who killed people. She wanted to cry. She wanted to believe Mecha was perfect and had never done anything wrong; especially not killing people. That was horrible.

"Mecha," she said brokenly, "you couldn't have killed anybody. That's ... that's just ... you couldn't have."

"I am not proud of it," said Mecha quietly. "It is one of the reasons I left my old master. He commanded me to do ... those things. That was the reason he created me."

"Who was your master?" asked Aleda, trying not to cry with the shock.

"An evil human named Dr. Robotnik," said Mecha, the name rolling off his tongue with disgust. "One thing I must say for Robo Knux ... he saw Robotnik for what he was long before I did. But I was programmed to be loyal, and it was a core component of my internal matrix. I could not physically question or overcome it until I upgraded my processors to a nanotech design."

Aleda couldn't take in the big words. She was stuck on the image of Mecha killing people. "Did ... did you only kill bad people?" she said.

"I thought they were bad at the time," said Mecha. "I do not wish to discuss this topic any longer."

Aleda wriggled deeper into his coat and curled up. He had only killed bad people; that was some comfort she could cling to. She told herself fiercely that she would not cry, and tried not to think about it anymore. She also tried not to dwell on another question that was growing in the back of her mind. Would Mecha have killed her if Robotnik had told him to?

She wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer.

Dawn spread its cold tendrils over the world, and Tails emerged from his hut in Knothole with a backpack slung over one shoulder. He hurried to his workshop, inhaling deeply and looking at the sky. The storm that had been lashing Sapphire City was moving north, and the sky was gray and overcast. It was warmer than it had been for the last week, and Tails guessed that they would get more rain than snow. Which was fine with him, because he didn't feel like driving to Riverbase in a snowstorm.

He unlocked the garage door on the back end of his workshop and rolled it open. There stood the Tornado in walker form. He had spent the previous day reattaching the body panels, and now the little walker was ready for travel. Tails reached into the cockpit and flipped the power switch, and said, "Good morning, Tornado!"

"Good morning, Tails," the Tornado replied. "Are conditions ready for travel?"

"Yep!" said Tails. "Except it looks like it's going to rain, so I'm putting up the canopy." He picked up a a folded metal frame like an accordion with canvas attached to it. He unfolded it and mounted it over the cockpit.

As he was strapping it down, Sonic appeared in the doorway wearing a jacket. "Heya Tails," he said, leaning against the frame. "Going somewhere?"

"Yeah," said Tails, snapping down a clamp. "I'm taking the Tornado down to Riverbase for some upgrades. I'm gonna get one of my Floating Island jewels cut."

"I wondered if you'd ever sell those things," said Sonic, putting his hands in his pockets. "Hi Tornado, how're you doing?"

"Hello Sonic," said the Tornado. "I am doing exceptionally well, thank you."

Sonic grinned and shook his head. "Still cracks me up to hear it talk. Tails, what kinds of upgrades you getting?"

"I'm going to price sensor arrays," said Tails. "I don't even know how much they are."

"Be careful down there," said Sonic. "Last time you went down there by yourself, we had that big earthquake and stuff."

"I know," said Tails. "I'm gonna stay the weekend. Maybe I'll come by the post office and say hi."

"That'd rock," said Sonic. "Have to be quick to catch me, though. I'm there about thirty seconds at a time. If you're gonna stay longer than the weekend, call me and let me know, okay?"

"Sure," said Tails, looking at Sonic over his shoulder. "Why?"

Sonic looked down and kicked the ground. "I worry about you, kiddo. Especially with this machine having a mind of its own now."

"Aww, don't worry about me," said Tails, secretly touched. Sonic hardly ever admitted to worrying about anything. "Part of the reason for this trip is to get the Tornado trained real good, and I'll teach it to protect me. I'm gonna visit the firing range down there."

"Cool," said Sonic. He tilted his head back and looked up at the sky. "It's starting to rain. I'm getting out of here. See you later!"

"Bye Sonic!" Tails called, but Sonic was already gone in a rush of air.

Tails left one corner of the canopy unclamped, and slung his backpack into the rear seat along with the thrall sphere. He grabbed his jacket from its hook by the door and put it on, then climbed into the dark, covered cockpit. The canopy had clear plastic panels along the sides for windows, but it was still dark inside. Tails flicked on the compartment lights, released the safety brake and gripped the controls. "All right, Tornado, pay attention. This is how it feels to move."

"Affirmative," said the computer.

Tails guided the Tornado out of the door, then climbed out to close the door behind them. Then he returned to the cockpit and drove out of Knothole, taking the road to New Mobitropolis. He turned on the radar and said, "Okay, we're going to take Forest Avenue to Beech Lane and cut over to highway 39. That takes us straight to Riverbase."

"Understood," said the Tornado, observing its real-time radar maps with interest. "It appears that I have some forms of visual enhancement after all."

"Told you," said Tails, grinning.

It was so early in the morning that there were no other vehicles on the road, and raindrops splattered Tails's windshield. he turned on his wipers and explained to the Tornado about weather and what happened when the roads were wet. The Tornado was curious about everything, and asked many questions as they strode along.

When they reached the highway, Tails transformed the walker into car-mode. The legs retracted and rotated so the tires rested on the road. The axle extended and two wheels unfolded in front to lift them off the street. The Tornado had become a small blue car with a tall tailfin.

Tails opened the throttle, and the Tornado roared out onto the highway. Tails grinned and yelled over the engine, "Car-form is the fastest one we have, aside from plane-mode!"

"Affirmative," said the Tornado. "Be careful of the wet pavement. Our traction is weak at these speeds."

Tails was aware of that, but he was also aware of the miles of empty road ahead of them. He kept the throttle open and gloried in the power of his machine.

Aleda awoke to find someone shaking her. She stirred and opened her eyes. At first she thought that she was still in Mecha's coat, then she looked up and gasped. The person holding her was a fox, not an android. "Who are you?" she blurted, staring.

"Hush," said the fox in Mecha's voice. "We are in Silvaline and I had to adjust my shape to avoid attention." The fox looked hard at her and she saw that his irises were red and glowed faintly.

"Oh," said Aleda, relaxing. "You scared me." She sat up and looked around. Mecha and Shadow were sitting on a bench in a park. They had removed their heavy clothing, but Aleda was still sitting in Mecha's coat, spread over the bench. The grass was brown and the trees were bare, and through them Aleda saw rows of buildings and a street with hovercars travelling to and fro. Nox was sitting on the bench on Shadow's other side, eating a package of rations, and Aleda was suddenly ravenous at the sight. "Mecha, can I have breakfast, too?"

"Yes." Mecha lifted her out of his coat, set her on the cold bench, and said, "Shadow, feed her, please." He folded his coat and crammed it into his backpack as Shadow tore open a pack of rations and handed it to Aleda.

The sun had risen over the mountains in the east, and the sky was barred with clouds. It seemed to Aleda that the air had grown warmer. Shadow's head was hanging, and he looked tired. Mecha, on the other hand, was gazing around with a calculating expression. Aleda sneaked looks at him as she ate.

She knew that he could alter his shape, because he had demonstrated it for her once. His biometal skin would take any shape if he had the information for it, for the nanites could orient and arrange themselves in limitless amounts of combinations. The only thing they couldn't form was fur. Mecha compensated for this by making the nanites stand up to create a velvety texture all over his body, reducing the gleam of his skin and creating the illusion of fur if seen from a distance.

"The ancient library archive is housed inside that building across the street," said Mecha in a low voice. "Shadow, you may accompany me if you wish."

"I'd rather stay here," said Shadow, looking weary. "I need to rest."

Mecha gazed at him. "Yes, travelling one hundred kilometers through rough terrain is not easy. Remain here with our packs. I will take Aleda with me. I will return within an hour or two."

Shadow nodded.

"I'm done," said Aleda, stuffing the last of her food in her mouth. Mecha picked her up and set her on his shoulder, and she giggled and stroked his velvety arm. "Act as if I have always had this appearance," he muttered. Then he rose and walked away, leaving Shadow and Nox on the bench.

Shadow watched Mecha cross the street and enter the tall building across the street. For a long time neither Shadow nor Nox spoke. Then Shadow opened his pack and pulled out his orange chaos emerald. "Nox," he whispered, "I'm going to leave for about fifteen minutes. Watch our stuff until I get back."

"Now where are you going?" said Nox, looking up at the black hedgehog. The chao sensed that Shadow was nervous and excited, and not as tired as he let on. But Shadow said, "I'll explain when I come back. Wait for me." And he teleported in a flash of light.

Robo Knux was leaning against a wall in an alley, rotating power cells in the laser in his right arm, when he received a transmission. "Robo Knux, I've come back. Tell me what my purpose is."

The red robot lifted his head, and if he could have grinned, he would have. "Why Shadow! How nice of you to visit." He tracked the source of the transmission. Shadow was half a mile to the east, on a side street that was empty so early in the morning. Robo Knux broke into a run in that direction.

Shadow's voice was annoyed. "I don't have all day. You said you know my purpose. What is it?"

"I can't explain it to you all in a minute," said Robo Knux in his oiliest tones. "It would be best if I spoke with you face to face."

"I don't think you know anything," growled Shadow. "You're setting me up with your lies."

"Now Shadow," said Robo Knux, faking shock, "when have I ever lied to you? I have data. Gigabytes of it."

"Where did you come by this data?" said Shadow.

Robo Knux took two shortcuts through back alleys and one across the roof of an apartment complex. His scans showed that Shadow was waiting for him. Perfect. Robo Knux had been planning this meeting for days.

"You know how Dr. Robotnik discovered a disk containing the diary of Gerald Robotnik," said Robo Knux. "I have discovered another while, shall we say, relieving our own doctor of some files he didn't need." He paused to let Shadow think about this. Two blocks to target.

He slowed to a walk and ducked across the lawn of an office building. Leave it to Shadow to plant himself in a public area where people would see them. Shadow had no fear of being seen, not while he carried that chaos emerald.

"What kind of files did you find?" Shadow said slowly. He had taken the bait.

"I found the entire Project Shadow database," said Robo Knux. "Information on you in incredible detail, and more of Gerald's personal notes." He rounded the last corner and saw Shadow standing there, gripping his orange gem and watching Robo Knux as a swimmer might watch a shark.

Robo Knux stopped twenty feet away from him. "I've read the files. You have purposes that you cannot begin to imagine. You have to read them yourself and form your own conclusions."

Shadow's natural eye narrowed. "What do I have to do in return?"

"I want some of Mekion's data," said Robo Knux, and gave him the filenames.

Shadow consulted his robot half and found that they were storage files of things he had done. He commanded Mekion to copy them and erase everything pertaining to Metal Sonic from them. Aloud, he said, "I am copying the files. Give me your data first."

Robo Knux opened a panel on the underside of his arm and pulled out a flat, rounded holodisk. He fingered it and regarded Shadow. "How do I know that you'll give me the data?"

"You don't," said Shadow. "For all I know, you're lying."

"A distinct possibility," said Robo Knux, enjoying this. "However, there is also the possibility that I am telling the truth, and it will torment you until you go mad."

The pair stared at each other. Around them, Sapphire City was awakening, and the traffic noise was crescendoing to its daily roar. They didn't have much time left before someone spotted them and reported Shadow to GUN.

"Give me the disk," said Shadow. "Then I'll transmit my files to you."

Robo Knux slowly walked forward. Shadow stood his ground, but his robot hand curled tighter around his chaos emerald. Robo Knux held out the disk. Shadow hesitated, studying the gesture for possible traps, then snatched the disk out of Robo Knux's hand.

A concealed dart fired from the disk's surface and plunged into the palm of Shadow's natural hand. He flinched and dropped the disk.

"Tag," said Robo Knux. "I told you that it was possible that I was lying. Well, I was. You have only one purpose, Shadow. My purpose for you."

A numbness was spreading up Shadow's arm. He dropped his chaos emerald in panic and gripped his injured hand with his robot one. He had never been tranquilized before. "You've poisoned me!" he gasped, backing away. "You filthy liar!"

"Liar, yes, filthy, no," said Robo Knux, watching Shadow's distress with sadistic delight. "I don't want your files, either. I want your chaos emerald. And you."

Shadow stumbled and fell to his hands and knees. "No, no, no," he was snarling. "You can't do this to me! You tricked me! Now I'm dying!"

"No, not dying," said Robo Knux. "You're going to fall asleep for a long time."

"Mekion, do something!" Shadow screamed mentally at his robot half. Mekion immediately transmitted a distress signal on every channel he could access.

Robo Knux retaliated with a scrambling signal. "Pathetic," he said, shaking his head. "Give it up, Mekion. Your master can't help you now. He doesn't know where you are, does he? Now he never will."

Shadow's head was drooping toward the pavement as the drug took hold. He struggled to stay upright, but his consciousness was deserting him. With a groan he slumped flat, and Mekion's eye flickered out.

Robo Knux picked up the fake holodisk and returned it to its compartment. Then he pulled out a cloth bag, swept the chaos emerald into it, and stowed it in another compartment. Then he nudged Shadow with one foot. "It's a good thing Robotnik showed interest in you. Otherwise I'd put my claws through your skull and call us even." He stooped and picked up the unconscious Shadow, and jogged back up the street and into the maze of alleys where he spent his time.

His hours of detailed planning had paid off.

Metal Sonic entered the library and looked around. It was a vast two-story building crammed with shelves of books. Wide windows lined the southern wall, and groups of study tables stood in the few open floor spaces. It smelled of old ink, paper and air freshener.

"Wow," said Aleda softly, looking around. "I didn't know there were this many books in the whole world."

"Yes, there are far more than this library contains," said Mecha quietly. "I wonder how one accesses the ancient documents." He approached the librarian, who was a mole who looked as if she never saw the sun. "Excuse me, I am doing research on Mobian history ..."

"Ancient documents, eh?" said the librarian, adjusting her glasses. "I heard. Do you have a library card?"

"No," said Mecha. "But I can register for one."

As he filled out the form with nearly-true information, Aleda again remembered that he had killed people, and it put a sick wiggle in her stomach. She gazed at his disguised face, still looking like Mecha under the false colors, and at his lithe, strong hand writing on the form. She couldn't even imagine him fighting, let alone killing anyone. Shadow had told her that Mecha had defeated Robo Knux in hand to hand combat, but she had been unconscious at the time and didn't remember. She shook her head at her dark thoughts. Maybe he had killed people before, but not anymore. He was nice now.

The librarian gave Mecha a card, then swiped it through her computer and waved him around the counter. "Through the door in the back," she said.

Mecha nodded and stepped through the doorway behind the counter. He found a short hallway with three doors. One was labelled "archeological storage", and this was the one that he entered.

It was a well-lit room piled high with boxes on racks, each categorized and numbered. "Here it is," said Mecha, going to the darkest corner and pulling down a box. He carried it to a table in the middle of the room, opened it and carefully lifted out a stack of yellow, fragile parchment. The ink was brown and faded, and he squinted at it as he set it on the table. "Aleda, you may run about if you wish," he said. "I will be here a while."

"Okay." He set her on the floor, and Aleda looked around at the shadow under the shelves with a shiver of delight. If Nox had come, this would have been the perfect place for hide and seek. She scampered off to explore.

Mecha studied the parchments, photographing them into his databanks for future reference. It was written in different dialects of Old Mobian. Fortunately Knuckles had taught him to translate Old Mobian, and Mecha had since studied the language further and broadened his vocabulary. This was an account of a war between two kingdoms that he had never heard of. He translated it roughly to himself, laid it aside and picked up another sheet. He wanted data on the Creator, the Master Designer, the being who had built the worlds. But it seemed that the ancient scribes had been more interested in the political doings of their time. It was probably interesting to someone somewhere, but not Mecha. He moved to the next parchment, and the next, accumulating lots of data but nothing that he wanted.

He was so absorbed in his reading that he did not hear the door open behind him, so he jumped when a voice said, "Hello! I didn't expect to find anyone in here."

Mecha turned to see that a Mobian rat had entered. He was as tall as Mecha, with a long pointed face and shifty eyes. He wore a brown robe with a hood, currently pushed back.

"Hello," said Mecha, inwardly gnashing his teeth at this intruder. "Can I help you?"

"Not really, I know where everything is," said the rat. "I'm Catter." He extended a pink hand.

Mecha regarded it, then slowly reached out and shook it. He didn't want to give his real name, so he cast about in his databanks for an alias. One of the odd names in the parchments sprang to mind. "I am Melthision," he said.

Catter nodded. "He Who Seeks. An apt name for a scholar. What's your field of study?"

"I am searching for information on the Master Designer," said Mecha. "The one who made all life. I have a few matters to discuss with him."

Catter almost laughed, then saw that this oddball fox was dead serious. "Like what?" Catter asked, pulling up a chair. "Maybe I can help."

"A few things that concern only myself," said Mecha coldly. The rat kept looking him up and down, up and down, as if he was puzzling over Mecha's disguised appearance.

There was a patter of feet, and Aleda appeared at Mecha's ankle. "It's scary back there," she said, and Mecha lifted her and set her on the table. She saw Catter and became quiet and still, staring at him.

Catter's eyes sharpened as he looked at her, and his round ears pricked up. He looked at Mecha again and leaned forward. "What if I told you that I know the Master Designer?"

Mecha raised an eyebrow. "Do you?"

Catter leaned back in his chair and studied Mecha and Aleda, thumbing his upper lip. "Yes," he said. "But he is particular about who approaches him. His power is beyond anything on this planet."

Mecha tried not to look interested, but his heart had sped up for no reason. At last, a lead in his search! Even if this rat was untrustworthy, he might have new information on reaching the Master Designer. As for the Master Designer being picky about the people in his presence, Mecha expected no less. If Mecha was all-powerful, he wouldn't let just anyone approach him, either.

"Perhaps he is the one I have been looking for," said Mecha. "Could you arrange an introduction?"

Catter looked him over for the dozenth time. "I sense you are a creature of knowledge with a thirst to learn. But is your mind open to the mysteries of the universe? Can you possibly grasp the mystery and majesty of a being who dwells in more dimensions than us?"

Mecha thought about this. "Probably not. But I try to keep an open mind and will learn what I may." He watched Catter and waited for a reaction.

Catter remained cool and calculating. "Perhaps you are open to the things that the Master Designer, as you call him, could teach you. Approaching him requires the setting aside of all pride and possessions. You must enter his presence with fear and trembling."

"Of course," said Mecha. "A god requires no less."

"Yes." Catter rose to his feet. "Come with me. I will attempt to arrange an encounter with the Master Designer. It requires much preparation and ceremony - "

"Do whatever it takes," said Mecha. "I must have an audience with him."

Catter led Mecha out of the library through a back door, down a side street and up the steps of a building that Mecha recognized as a temple. He hesitated on the threshold, looking at the doors that were engraved with fanged monsters. He was carrying Aleda on one shoulder, and she shuddered. "This place looks scary," she said through the network.

"Yes," he said. "I am not certain that I trust Catter, or believe his paranormal babble. Let me do the talking."

"What if the Master Designer really is in there?" said Aleda as they entered the temple. Inside was a big room with a stone floor, and a bare altar stood at the far end, surrounded by rows of flickering candles. Catter was waiting for them beside the altar, and Mecha walked toward him.

"If the Master Designer is here," said Mecha digitally to Aleda, "then my quest is already complete. But I do not think so. His temple would be far grander than this."

As they reached the altar, Catter said, "Now you must wait here. I am one of his high priests, and I must make preparations before you are permitted to enter his presence." Mecha nodded, and Catter's eyes lingered on Aleda for a long second before he turned away and vanished through a door behind the altar.

Mecha and Aleda waited, growing nervous in the silence. The inside of the temple was lined with pillars and tapestries, and incense braziers stood every few feet along the walls. The outer doors had closed behind them, and the only light came from two small windows high up near the ceiling.

"Mecha," said Aleda through the network, for she was afraid to break the silence of the room. "What's this big square thing for?"

"It's an altar," said Mecha, touching its cold stone surface. "It could be used for many things, from various religious rites to sacrifices. It depends on what kind of worship is held here." He looked around at the temple in distaste. "This is what I have been trying to avoid. The trappings and rules of religion. I feared all along that Mobius would have woven such things about its creator, which therefore disqualifies me from ever locating the Master Designer. There is no room in religion for robots. There is no room anywhere for robots." His mental voice was bitter.

Aleda patted his shoulder. "It'll be okay. If he does live on a higher plane of substance, he'll probably talk to you."

"Existence," corrected Mecha, but he smiled. "Perhaps. It depends on his nature."

The door opened and Catter reappeared. His hood was up, and he wore a long red scarf around his neck that dangled down the front of his robe. "Come, quickly," he said. "An audience has been arranged, but you must do as you are told. Do not interrupt the ceremony!"

"Agreed," said Mecha. He strode forward and followed Catter through the door into darkness. Stairs opened before their feet, and Mecha automatically flipped on his night vision to see where he was going.

"Mecha," Aleda whispered through the network, "your eyes are glowing. They'll know you're a robot!"

Mecha shut off his night vision and eye-lights as well, and groped his way down the stairs in deepening darkness. From below he could hear male voices chanting. It echoed off the stone walls, and on his shoulder Aleda trembled with fear. "Hush," he told her through the network. "No harm will come to us."

But Mecha was feeling uneasy. The underground room, the darkness, Catter's potential backup ... it smelled like a trap to his old assassin instincts. He reprimanded himself that the surroundings were inconsequential if the Master Designer was really here, and continued descending the stairs.

At last he turned a corner and entered a room with a ceiling so high that it was lost in darkness. The only light came from green torches burning high on the walls, and two incense burners that smouldered before a low dais. Surrounding the dais and screening its contents from sight were fifteen priests in hooded robes, each identical to the next. They all carried ornamental spears in their hands, and Mecha eyed them warily. Hand weapons didn't worry him, but they could harm Aleda. He took her off his shoulder and held her in his arms.

"Stop there," one of the priests commanded, and Mecha halted. He was twenty feet from the dais, and as he watched, one of the priests began to beat a drum. It echoed in the room, and the priests began to dance and chant, a low, haunting melody. As they moved in a circle around the dais, the drumbeat quickened and so did their chant.

"Mecha, Mecha, I'm scared," whimpered Aleda through the network.

"It is meant to unnerve us," said Mecha. "It will stop soon enough. It is their form of worship."

"The Master Designer must not be very nice if they worship him like this," said Aleda, hiding her face against his chest.

The dance and chant grew faster and louder, and Mecha's heart hammered along with the drum. He knew that it was purely a psychological reaction, but he couldn't help himself. It worried him that in order to meet an ethereal being, one had to whip oneself into an emotional frenzy. It went against the grain of his own logical personality, and the longer the priests danced, the more he hated them. He knew that he was being narrow-minded, but he simply couldn't accept that a ritual like this had anything to do with any being with whom he wanted to speak.

Suddenly the drum stopped and dead silence fell. The priests turned to face Mecha, and one of them strode forward. In the darkness he was unidentifiable, but Catter's voice rang out, "The great God Mun-Icytho has granted you an audience. Behold, there he stands! Worship him!"

The priests parted ranks, fell to their knees and paid homage to the object on the dais.

Mecha and Aleda stared. Mounted on the dais was a statue, suddenly illuminated from below by hidden lights. It resembled a human with a snarling wolf's head. Six arms sprouted from the torso, and a fish's tail composed the lower half of its body. Four arms were raised as if to strike, and two more were held out, palms upward, as if awaiting an offering. Its eyes glowed blood red. Illuminated in poisonous green light, it looked twisted and evil. Aleda gave a gasping cry and hid her face again.

Catter looked up and saw Mecha was still standing. "Bow, infidel!" he bellowed. "Kneel before your God!"

Mecha ran a scan over the statue. It was made of stone and wired with lights. "I am not bowing to that," he said.

The priests jumped to their feet and gripped their spears. Catter said icily, "Can you not see the power and terror of Mun-Icytho? This is the Master Designer you are seeking, Melthision."

Mecha cocked his head and looked at the statue. Diplomacy had never been his strong point, so he proceeded to speak his mind. "No," he said. "The Master Designer is a living being, because he could not grant life unless he himself was alive. That statue is made of marble and bronze. While it is an impressive work of art, it is not a living god. It cannot give life."

The priests inhaled and muttered to each other. Catter faced Mecha, fists clenched. "That statue is a representation of the god Mun-Icytho. We cannot imagine him as he truly is, so he inspired this image of himself. The true god himself inhabits it and accepts our offerings."

Mecha looked doubtfully at the statue. "If that is so, why does he not speak to me himself, instead of letting his priest defend him?"

Catter snarled. "He does not speak to such fools as you. Only the enlightened mind can hear his voice."

Mecha looked sarcastic. "Possibly. But if he created all life and is all powerful, he can speak to whomever he chooses. It appears that you control all access to this god, and if he performs at your bidding, then he is a puppet and not a god."

Aleda whispered, "You tell them, Mecha!"

The priests growled and shifted their spears. Catter turned to look at his followers, and they exchanged a hissing conversation. Then they turned to face Mecha again. "You have blasphemed our temple and our god. Blood must be shed to atone for this sin. Mun-Icytho demands the life of your chao." He pointed at the statue's outstretched hands.

Aleda stiffened in stark terror.

"You mean you demand the life of my chao," said Mecha quietly, with a dangerous undertone that only Sonic would have recognized. "If your god wants her, he can try to take her."

Catter took a spear from one of his companions. "If you do not give up the chao, you will never leave this chamber alive."

Mecha lowered his head, crossing his arms over Aleda's body as a shield. "You have no idea who you are dealing with."

Catter hurled his spear. It struck Mecha in the forehead and sliced across his right ear, leaving a deep silver gouge in the biometal. Mecha flinched and blinked, and the lights in his eyes flashed on and glowed a ferocious red. "Aleda," he said through the network, "hold on to my neck and don't let go no matter what happens."

She clasped her paws around his neck, and Mecha's body liquefied into silver metal. Aleda nearly slipped off, but his skin solidified again, and she regained her hold. Mecha had recalibrated his skin into battle armor mode. He had not used his battle armor since his final battle with Sonic, but he was so angry that he wanted to look as fearsome as possible. His arms and legs were now thickly paneled, the spines on his head were long and razor sharp, and his blue metal was striped with intricate white patterns.

He faced the priests with his arms raised to protect Aleda, and they watched his transformation in horror. "I am Metal Sonic," he told them. "Release me or I will gut every one of you."

"Mecha, don't kill them," whispered Aleda. He didn't answer her.

The priests looked to their leader, and Catter stared at Mecha. For a long moment no one moved. Catter was caught in a web of his own weaving. He had lured this stranger in to take the chao from him by force, for he had done it to other people in the past. But this person was a notorious killing machine who had insulted their god and refused to give up his chao. Behind Catter stood his priests, who would never respect him again if he let the robot walk away. Catter's pride was too great to allow that.

He bared his rat-teeth and pulled a long, curved ceremonial knife from under his robes. Mecha did not move. Catter sprang forward and slashed at Mecha's stomach, but Mecha was no longer there. Moving like lightning, Mecha sidestepped and buried his steel claws in Catter's arm. The rat yelled, and the other priests raised their spears and attacked.

Mecha didn't care if they hit him or not, for his goal was to protect Aleda. Thus he took some heavy blows from the spears that left cuts and slashes across his biometal body. They closed up again within seconds, but the pain only added to his rage. His original plan had been merely to injure them all, but when the last of his enemies collapsed three minutes later, and he swept them with a scan, Mecha realized that he had killed five of them. His claws were stained red.

With a growing sickness inside of him, Mecha bent and wiped off his hands on the robes of the nearest priest, then turned and hurried for the stairs. He had killed. Just like in his nightmares. He could try to reform himself, but deep down he was a bloodthirsty assassin robot who could kill easier than maim. He couldn't deny that he had liked fighting. It sickened him.

He emerged from the temple into the clean morning sunlight, his arms still wrapped around Aleda. She was clinging to him in silence, eyes tightly shut. Mecha wanted to stroke her, but his hands smelled of blood and he didn't want to traumatize her any more. He strode up the street toward the park, knowing that he was still in his battle armor and not caring. He was leaving this city anyway. The killer robot part of him wanted to turn back and burn the temple to the ground, but he restrained himself and walked on.

Nox was still sitting on the park bench with two knapsacks, but Shadow was not there. He stared as Mecha approached, and said, "Wow! How come you're wearing that?"

"Nevermind," said Mecha, looking around. "Where is Shadow?"

"He left," said Nox, hanging his head. "He said he'd only be gone fifteen minutes, but it's been an hour now ..."

Mecha sat down heavily on the bench, set Aleda in his lap, and rested his head in his hands. He felt stressed and tired, and somehow dirty from the ceremony and the battle. On top of all that, Shadow had run off. "Did he say where he was going?" said Mecha.

"No," said Nox. "But ... usually he goes to Sapphire City."

Mecha turned his head and gazed at the black chao. "Usually?"

Nox nodded. "We kept it a secret because we know you'd get mad. But he always comes back when he says, and this time he hasn't come back."

Mecha rubbed his head where the first spear had cut him. The wound had closed, but it would ache for several hours, as did all the other wounds he had recieved. Aleda was just sitting still, staring down at the bench. He knew the signs of shock, and it added grief to the emotional illness within him. Anger at Shadow, horror at intelligent Mobians who worshipped a carved stone and expected him to do the same, rage at what they had tried to do, remorse and grief for slipping into his old assassin ways so easily. Maybe there was no Master Designer. Maybe he was deluding himself with his own logic.

He opened a remote connection and transmitted a message to Shadow. "Shadow, this is Mecha, please respond."

The message bounced back to him, and Mecha felt an additional twinge of fear. The last time Shadow's port had been blocked, GUN was conducting a city-wide hunt for Shadow and had blocked all communications.

He readjusted his biometal to his every-day blue hedgehog form, and lifted his backpack. "It seems that we must pay a visit to Sapphire City," he said. Then he snarled and beat a fist against the bench. "Curse you, Shadow! The most dangerous city of all, and the hideout of Robo Knux!"

He bowed his head and rubbed the closed cut again. "Aleda," he said softly.

She turned her head and looked at him.

"I apologize for taking you in to such a situation," he said.

"You killed them," she whispered. "I asked you not to and you did. I hate you."

Her words cut through him, sharper than any spear, and he closed his eyes for a moment. "Very well," he said. "I deserve your hatred. But I do ask that you forgive me."

She only glared at him.

Feeling even more weary, Mecha opened his pack and set her inside. Then he motioned to Nox. "There's enough space for two. Keep her company." Nox nodded and climbed into the pack, and Mecha lifted it and slung it onto his back. He picked up Shadow's pack and put it on back-to-front, over his chest. Then he set off at a jog southwards, trying not to listen to Aleda. She had begun to cry at last.

When Tails reached Riverbase at ten that morning, the rain had settled in for the day. It drummed on the canvas roof of the Tornado, and formed minuscule rivers on the sides of the road. The clouds hung low and gray, and other vehicles drove by with a flare of headlights and a swish of wheels or sputtering hoverjets.

Tails drove the Tornado through the streets of the Mobian city, looking for a store called Industrial Parts and Warez, which was where he did most of his parts shopping. It had moved to a larger building downtown, and in the rain it was hard to see the signs on the buildings.

Finally he located it. It was a metal-sided warehouse with a domed roof and rounded corners, like most large Mobian structures, and Tails parked the Tornado as close to the doors as he could. "I'm going inside to look at parts," he told the computer. "I'll be back pretty soon."

"Affirmative," said the Tornado. "I will utilize radar to watch for you."

Tails unsnapped a corner of the canvas, climbed out into the rain, and snapped it back in place. Then he pulled his coat over his head and ran for the doors of the store, feeling the rain beating cold on his face and legs, soaking his fur.

He pushed open the door and stood just inside, shaking water off his jacket and fur. A female duck behind the counter waved to him. "Hi Tails! Long time no see!"

"Hi Janee," he panted. "It's pouring out there."

She rubbed her prehensile wingtips together. "All right! I love rain. I'll go play in it as soon as my shift's over."

Tails wiped his feet and set off to look around. "When did you move?" he called.

"Three months ago," Janee called back. "We'd totally outgrown the old place."

Tails wandered through Hydraulics, breezed through the power tools, and arrived at the sensor gear. He browsed through the new and improved radar and various types of night vision, some based on human designs, while others were strictly Mobian. The Cocytan rack was the smallest and the most expensive, but they had the bio-nano support that Tails wanted. Visual sensor arrays began at 500 mobiads and went up from there, and Tails gazed at them covetously.

After a while he wound up at the checkstand again. "Can I have a catalog?" he asked, and Janee handed him one as thick as a phonebook.

"Just looking?" she asked.

He nodded and grinned. "I'm too poor to afford the stuff I want."

"Aren't we all?" she sighed.

"Hey," said Tails, "know where any jewelers are?"

"There's one down on Standard," she replied. "I fly over it on my way to work."

"Okay, thanks," said Tails. "I'll be back." He tucked the catalog under his coat and dashed out into the rain. He scrambled back into the Tornado's cockpit, closed the flap behind him, and sat panting and listening to the rain on the roof.

"Greetings, Tails," said the Tornado.

"Hi," said Tails. "I looked at sensors, and they're dang expensive."

"Define 'dang expensive'," said the Tornado.

Tails grinned. "They cost about ten times more than the money I do have."

"Affirmative," said the Tornado, sounding slightly puzzled.

Tails opened the catalog and propped it against the control panel. He wanted to read about the types of sensors in greater detail.

He had sat there in silence almost ten minutes when the Tornado said, "Receiving transmission."

Tails jumped. "What?"

"Receiving transmission," the Tornado repeated. "It is a low frequency distress signal, very low power. Running cleanup and amplification now."

Tails looked at the screen, which displayed a sound file as the operations were done on it. "Who would send a transmission like that to you? I don't even have your software configured!"

"I configured it," said the Tornado smugly. "Transmission was broadcast to any user on the frequency. Play now?"

"Yes," said Tails.

A voice crackled through the speaker. "Mayday, mayday! This is Mecha-Fusion Unit Alpha. I am under attack and require immediate assistance! My coordinates - " The message ended.

"Play again," said Tails, and listened carefully. When it ended, he said, "Mecha fusion unit alpha. That's Shadow! What's he doing sending a distress signal?"

"Data unavailable," said the Tornado.

"Where did this message originate?" asked Tails, tapping the 'track' button on screen. The screen displayed the nearest satellite, but beyond that the source was unknown. "That signal could have come from anywhere in the northern hemisphere," said Tails, ears flattening in discouragement. "Shadow could be anywhere ... and why would he send a distress signal? He's too mean a fighter to call for help."

"Data unavailable," said the Tornado. "Observation. Local satellite is in geosyncronous orbit over Sapphire City to assist in human communications."

Tails slumped in his seat and stared at the screen. "That doesn't mean anything. Shadow could still have been anywhere. And what am I gonna do about it, anyway? Go rescue him? And have him frag me for making contact again." His thoughts strayed to his thrall sphere, which he could use to communicate with the Mecha bots. Then he thought of Metal Sonic's threat to torture him to death if he ever contacted him. If Tails contacted Shadow, Mecha would know, and Tails didn't like to think about Mecha hunting him down.

He turned on the Tornado's engine. "We're gonna drive across town and look for a jewelry place," he told his computer. "Maybe I'll be able to afford your sensors after that." He tried not to think about that transmission. It frightened him too badly.

Robo Knux stood on a clifftop overlooking the ocean, eight miles from Sapphire City. Here the clifftop was wide and sandy, a perfect place for a helicopter to land. It was cloudy and the sea was gray and restless, but far to the south he could see blue sky and breaking clouds. The storm was over.

He turned and walked across the open to a dense patch of grass, and looked down at Shadow. Shadow was lying as Robo Knux had dropped him, his arms and legs tied together with heavy tape. His eye was half-open and so glazed that he looked dead, but Robo Knux knew otherwise. Shadow would stay unconscious for 24 hours, or so the package of tranquilizer darts had claimed.

"I wish I could kill you," Robo Knux told the motionless black hedgehog. "Ever since you protected Mecha from me, I've wanted to kill you. Well, no, it started before that. The first time I laid eyes on your miserable carcass I wanted to put you out of my misery."

He paced around Shadow in a circle, hands clasped behind his back. "Mekion, Mekion. You are Metal Sonic's weakness, and I can't fathom why. You're a hideous freak. I suppose he likes you because he's the one who mutilated you, but even that makes no sense. He's built other robots and didn't care about them. But you're not a robot, are you, Shadow? You're a miserable organic hedgehog, now with robot parts."

He kicked Shadow's robot leg and continued to pace. "I don't understand it. It shouldn't be possible for Mecha to form emotional attachments. It's a weakness, because even the mightiest person can be controlled by threatening those they care for. I will certainly never go that direction." He spat the words with hatred and kicked Shadow again.

"He's even got a chao now. A puny worthless chao! I've studied chao as much as he has. They die too easily. Why bother with them? But he has. And he's ... he's ..." Robo Knux let out a bellow of anger. "ARGH, he's HAPPY. I can't stand it! Mecha's not supposed to be happy! I hate him!"

He drew back a fist to drive his claws into Shadow's head, thought better of it and slammed them into the ground instead. Robo Knux didn't understand this all-consuming jealousy that raged within him. Metal Sonic had always been the older model, the inferior of the two. But now Mecha was stronger than Robo Knux, and off doing things that Robo Knux didn't understand for reasons that Robo Knux couldn't fathom. It drove him mad.

He walked to the cliff's edge and looked out at the horizon again. The helicopter to pick up Shadow was due any time. He chafed at the delay and walked back to Shadow. "You're a slave," he hissed. "I was there when Mecha conditioned you. Mekion is programmed to be loyal and Shadow has been trained. I saw what happened when you remembered who you were. You should have revolted and run off to your little friends. Look what Mecha's done to you, after all!"

He prodded the metal side of Shadow's face with a claw. "But you didn't," Robo Knux whispered. "You came back to him. Even with Mekion disabled, you've always come back to him. Why is that? A slave like you owes nothing to him. He said that being kind to you would win your affection, even though it disgusted me at the time. Kindness was never one of Mecha's faults until now. But perhaps it worked. He's won your affection by being kind. If I was kind, could I win your affection, too?"

Robo Knux stabbed the ground again, several times. "Here's what I think of affection and feelings and weakness! I don't want them, I don't need them, and Mecha will die for having them, I swear it!"

His audio sensors detected the distant purr of a helicopter, and he returned to the cliff's edge. "About time," he muttered.

The helicopter swept up and landed, and two uniformed GUN officers stepped out. They looked suspiciously at Robo Knux, who pointed at Shadow. They walked over and looked at the black hedgehog, and could not hide their grins. The escaped convict was at last back in custody. They lifted Shadow by his arms and legs and carried him to the helicopter. Robo Knux watched as they loaded him in, closed the doors, and lifted off again.

His part of the bargain was complete. Now it was time for Robotnik to keep his.

Nox sat curled up in a corner of Mecha's backpack, facing Aleda. She was facing him, but the six inches of space between them might as well have been six miles. She was huddled on her side with her eyes closed, locked up so tightly within herself that Nox couldn't feel her at all. They sat on Mecha's folded coat, and cool air seeped into the pack through the gaps in the top flap. Metal Sonic was running at high speeds, and his gait was far rougher than Shadow's skating glide. Nox had caught Mecha's worry, and it frightened him. Where was Shadow? Why hadn't he come back?

Beneath that, Aleda and Mecha were estranged, and it was almost more than Nox could bear. From Aleda, he caught glimpses of the same horror and grief that radiated from Mecha, except Aleda's feelings were directed at Mecha, and Mecha's feelings were directed at himself. Neither of them spoke to Nox, and he was certain that they weren't speaking to each other. All he could do was endure it, and feel like a third wheel that nobody wanted.

He thought of Omega, the massive robot that he had piloted, and wished that he could pilot it again. People took you seriously when you packed that much firepower.

Mecha ran for hours without stopping, and Nox grew cramped and shifted positions. Aleda had fallen asleep again, so at least he didn't have to fret about her ignoring him.

Nox was dozing, himself, when he felt Mecha's pace change, slowing down. Nox peered out of the crack in the knapsack and saw some sort of building that Mecha was circling. "Where are we, Mecha?" Nox asked.

"An outbuilding of a farm," said Mecha. "I must rest somewhere without fear of discovery."

Nox heard a door rattle open, then they entered the darkness of the building. Nox pushed open the flap and looked out. They were in an old barn with rusted equipment piled in the corners. It smelled of musty hay and animal droppings. The floor was thick with dust, and it appeared that no one had been inside in months.

Mecha turned in a slow circle, scanning the interior. Then he walked to a corner and lifted a mass of tarp off the floor. Dust and dead insects fell out of it, and he shook it several times, then half-draped it over a rusted harrow. He pulled off his two packs and shoved them underneath, then crawled into the makeshift tent, himself. "Nox," he said, "how is Aleda?"

"She's asleep," said Nox. "Want me to keep watch?"

"Yes," said Mecha, curling up on his side. "I am at the end of my strength reserves. I must sleep."

"I'll take care of us," said Nox, climbing out of the pack. "Don't worry about a thing."

"Affirmative." Mecha relaxed, closed his eyes, and was asleep within seconds.

First Nox left the shelter of the tarp and explored the barn. It was full of farm implements that he had no hope of understanding, and a broken-down tractor that took up the far end of the barn. He looked outside and saw another barn in the distance, but it was freshly-painted and looked well-used. Their barn, on the other hand, was surrounded by tall dead weeds, and the path to its door was overgrown.

He returned to Mecha's hiding place. Mecha was sound asleep, breathing evenly and deeply. Nox dug into Shadow's pack for some food, then checked on Aleda. Her eyes opened as he lifted the flap. "Where are we?" she asked.

"Shh," said Nox. "Rest stop. Mecha was tired."

Aleda got up and scrambled out of the pack. She stood looking at her sleeping parent for a long moment, then quivered and turned to Nox. "Are we in a base?"

"A barn," said Nox. "Come and look around, there's lots of cool stuff. Want a cracker?"

"Sure!"

The pair toured the barn, and Aleda forgot her shock for a while. Nox's enthusiasm was contagious, and for a while she was nearly as merry as he was.

Suddenly Nox froze and stared into the shadows behind the broken tractor. He shrank close to one of the tires, and Aleda followed suit. "What? What's back there?"

"Some guy's sitting back there!" whispered Nox, his eyes round. "I didn't even see him! I felt him, because he was laughing at us."

Aleda craned her neck to see around the tractor tire. There, in the darkest corner of the barn, sat a figure. They saw that his face was turned toward them. "Hello," he said in a low voice. "Don't be afraid. You're welcome to stay as long as you want."

Nox and Aleda exchanged glances, curiosity slowly replacing their fear. "He doesn't feel dangerous," whispered Nox, looking hard at the stranger. He stepped into the open and walked into the darkness behind the tractor. "Hi," he said. "My name's Nox, and that's Aleda. We're chao."

The stranger smiled. "My name is Melchizedek. I'm a hedgehog."

Aleda scurried up to join Nox, and they gazed at Melchizedek. He had more spines than Sonic or Shadow - they ran in multiple rows down his head and back, and they were short and thick. His face was very pointed, as if he was closer to a non-sentient animal than a modern Mobian hedgehog. His arms and legs were lean and muscled, and they figured that he must work on this farm. He wore a pair of tough leather boots, which were caked with mud. He was leaning against the wall as if perfectly at home in this barn. "I saw you come in," he said. "I'm glad you finally noticed me. The tractor hid me from the hedgehog who's with you."

"He was really tired," said Nox. "And he's not really a hedgehog, he's - "

"He is too a hedgehog!" snapped Aleda. She looked at Melchizedek. "He just didn't used to be. His name's Mecha."

Melchizedek nodded. "You look just like him, so you must belong to him, right?"

"Yes." Aleda hung her head. "Except I don't want to anymore."

Melchizedek looked curious. "You don't? Why?"

Aleda addressed the floor. "Because he killed those guys. He ... he just killed them."

Melchizedek studied Aleda, and Nox studied Melchizedek. This hedgehog was friendly and open, easy to talk to, but his attitude was strange. He acted as if he already knew Aleda's problem, without her telling him.

"You know what happened," said Nox. "Are you a mind-reader?"

The hedgehog looked at him. "Not exactly. I've been following you."

Nox almost panicked. "Why-why are you doing that? Are you gonna hurt us?"

Melchizedek shook his head and waved a hand. "Calm down, calm down. I saw when the priest led Mecha to the temple, and it worried me, so I went along to spy. I know Catter and his kind."

"You saw what happened?" said Aleda, staring. "You were there?"

"There are many hiding places in that temple," said Melchizedek, making a face. "To my disgust I know them all, because I worked there before the cult converted it to their temple. Of the fifteen priests, Mecha only killed five. He restrained himself very well for his first return to combat."

Aleda gazed up at the hedgehog, astonished. "I thought he killed all of them! But he still killed five."

"Yes," said Melchizedek. "The five who came the closest to killing both of you."

Aleda was silent.

Melchizedek leaned forward. "You must forgive him, Aleda. He was defending you, and if he had not, you would have died a terrible death. I know it was a horrible thing, and you will never forget it, but you can learn from it."

Tears were running down her face, and she sniffed. "I know," she whimpered. "But he used to kill people all the time, and - I'm scared he'll do it again."

Melchizedek sighed and looked at Nox, and Nox felt as if someone had punched him in the stomach. Melchizedek's emotions ran far deeper than Aleda's, and Nox realized that Melchizedek had the utmost sympathy for both Mecha and Aleda. Nox realized with a shock that the same sympathy also extended to him. "You are too a mind-reader!" said Nox accusingly. "How can you like me so much without knowing me?"

Melchizedek shrugged. "You have yet to learn some things about being a sympath, Nox. You'll understand eventually." He cocked his ears toward Mecha's resting place. "I think Mecha's waking up. You'd better return to him or he'll panic."

"Right." Nox grabbed Aleda's arm and dragged him across the barn to the tarp. As they arrived, Mecha opened his eyes and blinked at them. "Greetings," he said. "All is well?"

"Yeah," said Nox. "There's this guy over there we were talking to, but he was really nice."

Mecha scrambled to his feet in instant terror. He threw aside the tarp and scanned the barn again, then saw the barn door was just swinging shut. "Why didn't you wake me?" he hissed at the chao. "If he had tried to harm you, I could not have stopped him! We must leave at once." He grabbed up the two packs, hustled the chao into them, and was on the run two minutes later.

He had run several miles when Aleda said haltingly, over the network, "Mecha ... I forgive you."

It pierced his heart the same as when she had said that she hated him, but in a different way, because it was so unexpected. "You do?" he said. "I am grateful."

"The guy in the barn said I should," said Aleda, and told Mecha all about Melchizedek. Her story about a hedgehog who had followed him from the temple, but who had reached the barn before him, frightened him even more. Mecha had travelled most of the day at 200 miles an hour. The only hedgehog on record who could run so fast was Sonic, and this was not Sonic, but some self-appointed spy. Perhaps he had teleported instead, but that was little better. Teleports were undetectable, and Mecha couldn't guard against them.

So he ran like a hunted thing, staying under the shelter of the trees, and keeping his scans on their widest sweep. But under his fear was a warm sense of comfort that Aleda had forgiven him. He must keep the killer robot inside of him restrained from now on, for the taking of a life was a heinous thing. Even if it was the life of an enemy.

On Deimos Island, the weather had cleared and the wind had dropped, but the sea continued to crash and boom against the cliffs.

Nicholas stood with his hands in his coat pockets, staring east at the horizon. He never should have left Sapphire City. Here on the clifftop the helipad was wide and empty, and from time to time he felt a touch of mist on his face from the ocean hundreds of feet below. The sky was wide and blue, and the ocean was a smiling blue-green. It was so vast, and it held him and his colleagues prisoner.

Nick had taken to leaving the laboratory to walk around outside, because he couldn't stand Robotnik and his silent robot servants. The robots were always watching them, quiet, unobtrusive, blending into the background. But Touis had taken the advantage of examining one and discovered that each robot had a micropistol built into its chest. This had unnerved all of them. A robot watching you was the same as a gun pointed at your head.

So Nick had to escape once in a while. He hated to admit it, but he was starting to miss other humans. Robotnik didn't count, because subliminally, Nick didn't consider him human.

He walked across the helipad and took a side path that led away from the lab, down toward the alleged dock. To his surprise, he saw Barlet the grey squirrel plodding up the path toward him. Barlet looked up and waved.

Nick walked down the slope to him. "Find anything?"

"No," said Barlet, ears flattening. "Come look. You can't get down there."

The pair walked down the path, which angled down into a deep cutting along the face of the cliff. Barlet carried his fluffy tail low, instead of up in a curl as he usually did. "Something got you down?" Nick asked.

The squirrel shrugged. "We're trapped. We can't get home, and there's no way to get a message out. Robotnik put a firewall on our computers, and I swear the thing is sentient. It wouldn't let me do anything that might reach the outside."

Nick smiled at him. "I didn't know you were a hacker."

Barlet gave him a sideways smirk. "You don't spend three years in college without learning a few things. Me and some buddies used to see how far into the system we could go ..."

"So that's how you kept from flunking, eh?" said Nick.

"Of course not!" said Barlet, outraged. "I had a 3.5 grade point average. But I did keep my buddies from flunking."

"Ah, the truth comes out," said Nick with a laugh. It felt good to laugh.

"Yeah," said Barlet, grinning. "The point is, I know computer security, and I can't crack this stuff. If Robotnik wrote it, he could sell it and make millions."

Ahead of them, the path sloped steeply and was slick with spray from the surf. Barlet and Nick halted. "Wanna try it?" said Nick, watching the water crash over the path.

"Don't bother," said Barlet. "I skidded down there, and there's a place where the path's been washed away for ten feet. There's no way across except by flying."

Nick allowed himself the luxury of a curse. He added, "Did you see if there was a dock down there?"

"No," said Barlet. "But see down there, how the cliffs curve back a little? It forms a natural bay, and the path went around a corner in there. If you could get boats through the reefs, that's where they'd be."

They looked at the water hitting the path, then turned and climbed back up toward the clifftops. Neither spoke, for they were feeling even more trapped and helpless.

Barlet stopped and his ears flicked forwards. He pointed. "Look! A helicopter!"

Nick's head snapped up and hope surged through him. "Maybe we can tell them what's going on, and ask them to take us back! Let's go!" He sprinted up the hill with Barlet in pursuit.

The helicopter swept in and landed as they arrived at the helipad. The engine dropped to an idle, and the side door slid open from the inside. Two uniformed GUN officers stepped out and greeted them, yelling over the engine noise. "Thanks for coming out! Even sedated, he's a handful. Give us a hand!"

They slid the door open all the way, and Nick and Barlet saw a black tangle lying on a stretcher inside the helicopter. "Good grief, what is that thing?" Barlet exclaimed.

Nick turned to the officer. "Sir, I need to speak to you - "

"No time," said the officer. "We're due back on base in two hours and we're almost late as it is." He grabbed the stretcher and slid it out, and instructed Nick and Barlet to take the handles on either end. "Good luck!" one of the men shouted, then the officers jumped back into the helicopter and slammed the doors. It lifted off in a blast of wind, leaving the bewildered human and squirrel holding the stretcher.

Nick made himself look closely at the creature upon it. It was a hedgehog with black fur and spines, but the left half of its body was composed of robotic implants. He looked at Barlet, who was also staring.

"Why did they give us this thing?" Barlet whispered.

Nick shook his head. "No idea. Let's get it back to the lab. Maybe Robotnik knows what to do with him."

They carried the stretcher back to the lab, fumbling out their keycards at the fence and front door. Once inside the lobby, they carefully set the stretcher on the floor, and Barlet went to fetch Dr. Robotnik.

Nick remained beside the black hedgehog, moved by pity. The hedgehog's hands and feet were bound tightly with clear tape, and Nick unwound it and pulled it off. Then he arranged the hedgehog's crumpled limbs in a more comfortable position, and looked into its face. At first glance its face was angry and terrifying, for one eye was an electronic one with a harsh, slanted socket. The natural eye was heavily browed, and the eyelid was half-open, revealing the glazed, ill-looking eye beneath. Nick looked at the metal blade-like spines on the left half of its body, and the sharp claws on its robot hand. This creature was dangerous when awake. No wonder it had been sedated. But where had such a bizarre creature come from?

The nearest airlock rotated open, and Dr. Robotnik stepped out, followed by Lintel, Barlet, Touis and Kray. Robotnik was grinning. "Well well, he arrives at last!"

He strode to the stretcher and gazed down at the cyborg, then turned to the scientists. "I'd like to introduce you to Shadow, the ultimate lifeform," he said with a wave of his arm. "He was created by the late Dr. Gerald Robotnik, my grandfather. The implants were added later, by another ... scientist." He stumbled slightly over the word. "He can control chaos energy in unusual ways, and I have had him brought here for study."

There was a moment of silence as they all looked at the shape on the stretcher. Then Robotnik said, "Take him into lab 1. He will have to be restrained, or when he wakes up he will destroy everything."

Nick and Barlet hurried to lift the stretcher again, and carried it through the airlock into the main lab. There they found that Robotnik's robots had bolted a steel frame to the middle of the floor, and chains were welded to the four corners, like a demented doorframe of torture.

Nick turned to Robotnik, who had followed them in. "You want us to tie him to that? It looks ... medieval!"

"If you don't," said Robotnik quietly, looking Nick in the eye, "then he will kill you long before I get around to it."

"Is that a threat?" said Nick softly.

"Yes it is," said Robotnik. "Chain him."

For a second Nick's fear and outrage flamed up into pure hatred of this man. Struggling to master it, he turned and said, "Barlet, help me lift Shadow."

Shadow was well-muscled, and his robot side was heavy and stiff. It took both of them to hoist him up and chain his hands and feet. When they were finished, Shadow hung by his hands in the iron frame, head dangling.

Robotnik nodded his approval and left. Nick scowled after him, then looked at the pathetic creature in the chains. "This is sick," he said softly to Barlet. "And we're supposed to study him?"

Barlet was gazing at Shadow, ears flat. "I can't do it," he whispered. "I've read about this kind of thing, and I swore I'd never do it. I got into nanotech because I can't handle blood."

The airlock door opened, and Robotnik returned, carrying a syringe in one hand. "A little anti-sedative for our friend," he said, approaching Shadow. "We can't let him sleep while we have tests to run, now can we?" He pulled back the fur on Shadow's arm and injected him, then stepped back to view the results.

For several minutes nothing happened. Then, as the stimulant worked its way through his bloodstream, Shadow began to stir. His head swung from side to side, and his organic eye blinked. He lifted his head and looked at them, squinting and trying to focus his eyes. His electronic eye was on, but it was flickering. Then he moved his arms and looked up at the chains, and the frame holding him. "What in the?" he whispered.

Then he lunged forward with such power that the frame shuddered. But the chains held, and Shadow was jerked back and swung back and forth until he got his feet under him again. He glared at the three of them in helpless confusion, finally staring at Robotnik. "What is this?" he hissed. "What are YOU doing here?"

"Don't trouble yourself with details, Shadow," said Robotnik. "Or do you go by Mekion now?"

"I'm Shadow," he snarled in a whisper.

Robotnik slowly smiled. "You would be much more useful as Mekion," he said, stroking his mustache.

Shadow again hurled himself against his restraints, fighting with such violence that Nick and Barlet moved back several steps. The frame shivered and shook, but did not bend to Shadow's fury. A moment later he collapsed and hung, panting, by his wrists. Robotnik only continued to smile and stroke his mustache. Without another word he turned and left through the airlock.

Shadow looked at Nick and Barlet, his face contorted in rage. "If I get out of this thing," he spat at them, "I'm gonna rip both of you apart. Don't you know who that is?"

"Yes," said Nick, "but - "

Shadow flung himself at Nick, but was halted by his chains. Nick and Barlet backed toward the door, all pity forgotten. "Run!" said Shadow in his broken voice. "Go on, run! I'm gonna break out and smash this place to pieces!"

The two fled through the airlock, leaving Shadow alone.

Immediately he went limp and let his head hang, groaning softly. "Mekion," he said, "locate nearest satellite and send another distress signal."

His computer ran channel scans and found an open port. Again he repeated his mayday signal, and transmitted it three times before the wireless firewall blocked him.

"Shadow," said Mekion, "our coordinates are still set to Sapphire City."

"Where are we now?" said Shadow. "Aren't we in Sapphire City?"

"Location unknown," said Mekion. "Our probability of survival is high, but it is possible that Dr. Robotnik plans to torture us via laboratory methods."

"Probably," muttered Shadow. "I can't believe this is happening. I hope Mecha gets my signal. I don't like the way Robotnik was smiling. And if those other scientists touch me, I swear I WILL kill them."

Shadow's transmission was received by three different people.

Metal Sonic picked it up as he was running through a wooded valley, following the Great River as it wound its way south. It so startled him that he slowed to a halt, scanning frantically for further transmissions. He picked up the next two, and stood waiting for more. None came.

He felt the chao shift in his backpack, and Aleda said in his head, "What's the matter? Why did we stop?"

"I received a distress signal from Shadow," he answered aloud, so both Aleda and Nox could hear. "It included coordinates for Sapphire City." His voice dropped to a mutter. "If he is in danger, then the transmission was certainly long in coming. Knowing Shadow, he probably did not consider himself in danger until it was too late."

In his pack, Nox bared his teeth and beat his paws helplessly against the side of the pack. "I should have gone with Shadow, I knew it, I knew it!"

Mecha began to move, first at a jog, then at a run, goaded on by his rising worry.

Aleda watched Nox with interest, for she had never seen him so angry before. "If someone hurt Shadow, would you kill them?"

Nox glared at her. "If someone hurt Mecha, would you kill them?"

Aleda was taken aback. "Uh ... I don't know. Is that possible?"

"I was there when Robo Knux was beating the snot out of Mecha," growled Nox. "And Robo Knux hurt Shadow, too, and I couldn't do anything. It drives you mad. You won't understand until it happens."

This was a new concept to Aleda, and she tried to picture her beloved Mecha losing in a fight. But it was so far from her experience that she couldn't.

The second person to receive the mayday transmission was Tails.

He had bought lunch from a Mobian fast-food restaurant, and was eating a steak sandwich and reading Popular Engineering when the Tornado said, "Receiving transmission."

"Not again," said Tails with his mouth full. "Play it."

The Tornado played the three signals, this time complete with coordinates, and Tails slowly lowered his sandwich into the wrapping in his lap. Shadow was calling for help again. He must really be in trouble.

"Display coordinates," said Tails.

The Tornado's screen showed a map of North Mobius, then zoomed in and highlighted Sapphire City. "I told you this already," said the Tornado, sounding pleased with itself.

"Oh, shut up," said Tails. "So you were right, fine. You shouldn't be able to gloat about it. So what do we do?"

"No recommended course of action exists in my databanks," said the Tornado. "Observation. This is a distress signal, which requires aid from whoever can give it."

Tails gazed at the map and at the red blip that was Sapphire City. Then he rewrapped the remains of his sandwich and set it in the back seat. He licked his fingers, wiped them on a napkin, and picked up the thrall sphere from under his backpack in the back seat. He settled into the pilot seat again with it in his lap, and its gentle, melodic hum filled the tiny space.

"I don't care what Mecha says," Tails muttered, "I'm gonna call Shadow. Tornado, I'm gonna be talking with someone. I'll address you by name when I'm talking to you again."

"Yes, Tails." The computer fell silent, and Tails had the feeling that it was observing him with interest.

Tails pictured Shadow in his mind's eye and placed his bare hands flat on the sphere. He had discovered weeks ago that the sphere let him hear anything, anywhere on Mobius, from traffic noise in Rio Del Fuego to Shadow chattering over the network to Mecha. All he had to do was tune the sphere's frequency, which he did by moving his hands slowly over its smooth surface. He felt the vibration of the sphere transmitted through his hands and arms to his ears, threatening to hypnotize him if he relaxed. Tails remained tense, forcing himself to listen. He had to find Mekion. He could talk to robots, but no one else, for only robots had the necessary radio hardware to respond.

The world around him fell silent, and Tails heard snatches of voices talking, birds singing, water flowing, like switching stations on a radio. Shadow was out there somewhere, if only he could find him. Tails turned his head slowly from side to side, trying to point his ears toward wherever Shadow was. "C'mon," he muttered, trying to hold a crystal-clear image of Shadow in his mind. "Shadow, where are you?"

Suddenly he had it. There was no voice, but he knew that he had locked onto Mekion's signal through the wavelength itself. Tails pitched his voice to the note of the thrall sphere and half-sang, "Shadow, it's Tails."

"Tails!" Mekion exclaimed, his voice clear and close, played directly into Tails's eardrums through the sphere. "Tails, why are you contacting me?"

"I got your distress signal," said Tails. "Are you in trouble?"

"Affirmative!" said Mekion vehemently. "I've been taken prisoner by Robo Knux and Dr. Robotnik, and I'm chained inside a laboratory somewhere, I think Sapphire City. I don't know what they're going to do to me."

"What should I do?" Tails asked, worry and fear punching his stomach at the mention of both his old enemies.

"Get down here and save me," snarled Shadow, as if hating to ask for help. "Bring Sonic, bring anybody. Have you contacted Mecha?"

"Uh, no," said Tails. "You know what he'd do to me."

Shadow grunted. "I'm not sure if his threat applies to this situation. I - " He broke off, then said, "They're shutting Mekion off. Hurry, Tails!"

His signal vanished.

Tails released the thrall sphere and sat with his hands in the air, staring at the control panel without seeing it. Shadow was in danger of who knows what, and his captors had the power to turn off Mekion. That in itself was frightening.

He set the thrall sphere in back again, then said, "Tornado, dial Sonic's cellphone. I gotta tell him about this."

The third person to pick up the distress signal caught it by accident.

Sally was seated at the desk in her office, drawing up plans for an army base and looking at available sites, when there came a tap at her door. "Come in," she said.

The door opened and a young cougar stepped in. "Hello ma'am," he said, ducking his head in a sort of bow.

"Hello Fealor," said Sally, turning to face him.

Fealor Nash was scarcely out of his teens, and his tawny fur still had a faded, juvenile mottling that he was finally outgrowing. He carried a sheet of paper in one hand, which he handed to Sally. "It's kind of strange," he said. "We got in our new communication equipment yesterday, and I was down there with Creft and Bobby, setting it up. We were scanning the low frequency bands when this message came through."

Sally read the message. "Mayday, mayday. This is Mecha-Fusion Unit Alpha. I am under attack and require immediate assistance. My coordinates are as follows." A string of longitude and latitude numbers followed. The message was repeated twice more.

Sally looked up with a frown. "Who is Mecha-Fusion Unit Alpha?"

Nash shook his head. "We ran it through our code records from Robotnik's days, and there's no matches. I checked with the human network, and there's no hits there, either." He motioned to the paper. "I looked up the coordinates there, and it's somewhere in Sapphire City."

Sally studied the message again, chewing her lower lip. "How did we pick up a low-frequency broadcast all the way from there? They don't have that kind of power."

"Seems it bounced through the satellite," said Nash. "Creft said he'd never seen anything like it."

Sally gazed at the name. "Mecha-Fusion ... is that Metal Sonic? But why would he send a mayday signal?" She trailed off, then said, "You're dismissed, Fealor. I have some calls to make."

Fealor bowed again and departed, and Sally picked up her phone. She called Sonic's cellphone and listened to it ring, hoping that just once he had remembered to turn it on. After six rings his answering machine picked up, and Sally groaned in irritation. She left a message telling him to call her back, then turned back to her computer.

But her concentration had shattered, and she kept picking up the printout and looking at it. A distress signal at low frequency ... possibly Metal Sonic. And her techs, of all people, had picked it up.

She was musing on it with her chin in one hand when there came another knock. "Come in," she called, straightening and trying to look busy.

The door opened and Sonic stepped in. "Hi Sal!" he said with a grin. "You busy?"

"Not really," said Sally. "You ought to turn on your phone more often."

"I can't when I'm teleporting," said Sonic. "That's how I burned up my communicator. Why, did you try to call me?"

"Yes," said Sally, sliding the printout toward him. "About this."

Sonic picked it up and scanned it. "Sally!" he exclaimed, eyes widening. "This is from Shadow!"

"Are you sure?" she asked, rising and circling her desk to join him. "It says Mecha right there."

"Yeah, Mecha-Fusion," said Sonic. "Mekion is a contraction of that. And he was the first one, so he's the alpha unit."

Sally immediately felt foolish for not realizing this herself. "Well, Shadow called for help and we picked up his message."

"Dang," said Sonic softly. "Where was this transmitted from?"

"Sapphire City," said Sally. "About twenty minutes ago."

Sonic looked at the paper again, and Sally could see the indecision in his eyes. "Sal," he said, "maybe I should go check it out. What do you think?"

She knew that Sonic and Shadow were rivals, but Sonic did care about Shadow and worried about him, when they weren't actively trying to kill each other. She nodded. "Go ahead. And turn your phone on, okay?"

Sonic grinned sheepishly. He was still wearing his workbelt, and his phone was clipped to it. He unclipped it and turned it on, and examined the screen. "Two messages," he said. "Maybe I should leave this thing on." He punched a button and listened to his voicemail, and Sally saw a look of disbelief flicker over his face.

"Sally," he said, "Tails called me. He picked up the exact same message, and he's on his way to Sapphire City in the Tornado!"

"Looks like he beat you to it," she said, smiling.

He nodded, lighting up. "Great minds think alike!"

"And fools seldom differ," said Sally, and laughed. "Go catch him! But leave your phone on."

"Right," said Sonic with a wink. "See you, Sal!" He left her office at a run.

Sally gazed after him, and her smile faded. The last time they had received a strange message, Sonic had been kidnapped, and faced death in several different ways, and the city of Rio Del Fuego had nearly fallen to a devastating air raid. She hoped that this message wouldn't lead to a similar situation, and she opened her desk drawer and looked down at her violet chaos emerald. Sonic had found it and loaned it to her, and she took it with her everywhere. If he went into danger again, she was going with him. And this time she was armed.

Robo Knux sat on a clifftop, letting his feet dangle over the edge. Exhaust rose from the ends of his dreadlocks, and his computer told him that their internal heat levels were still in the red. They made a ticking sound as they cooled. Two hundred miles made for a very long flight, and for a while Robo Knux had wondered if he would make it at all. Out over the ocean there was nowhere to stop and cool off, so he had pushed his metal body to its limits.

He had reached Deimos Island with minimal damage. Not that it worried him. Here on this island were the scientists who were going to give him the upgrades he needed so badly.

He had given them Shadow. The idea amused him. Either they would kill Shadow, or Shadow would kill them, depending on how well they restrained him. It was not exactly the bargain he had made with Robotnik, but Robo Knux didn't trust Robotnik to keep his word. Chaos emeralds were hard to come by, and Robo Knux knew how powerful they were.

Robo Knux snapped open one of the storage compartments in his chest, and removed a leather bag from where his heart would have been. He turned it upside down, and the orange chaos emerald clinked onto the rock. Robo Knux sat looking at it. After he had installed the chaos drive into his hull to enable him to use a chaos emerald, he had carried the green emerald for several weeks. It had increased his speed and power levels, but it had also disrupted the chaos field in ways he didn't understand. In the end it had almost destroyed him. He had sworn never to use a chaos emerald again, but now he had one in his possession.

It fascinated him. It was so powerful, and so forbidden to a creature such as himself. A creature made of metal, who could not absorb chaos energy and so could only incinerate.

He touched the emerald and his systems went haywire, his readouts fading to static, and his vision blurring into insane colors. He released the emerald and waited for his systems to return. They stabilized after a few seconds, and Robo Knux touched the emerald again. Again his computer went into the equivalent of seizures. He released the emerald again, and it was only then that he noticed it.

Chaos energy disrupted his systems. Therefore, he should be paralyzed. But he wasn't! He remained self-aware and capable of higher motor skills, like moving his hand. But that wasn't possible! He was a walking computer with claws, and he knew it. He had examined his own schematics many times, plotting upgrades and weapon implants. When his computer errored, his brain shut off. He thought about it with a growing sense of confusion. No ... because he knew when his computer errored, and raged and cursed at it in silence until it reactivated and repaired itself. He had never thought about it before, but it was almost as if he had a second brain, one that acted independently of his real hardware.

He loaded his schematics and studied them, hunched forward with his elbows on his knees. He had examined them so often that he knew them by heart, but he loaded the one on his brain anyway. There it was: circuit boards and chips, all contained inside a protective metal shell, waterproof, bulletproof, shielded from magnetic and electrical forces. He had taken great pains to ensure that nothing pierced his 'skull'. But there must be something more. Inside that skull was the computer that he was disrupting with chaos energy. But he could think independently of his computer, as if he was outside of his own skull.

He must locate this unknown component of himself and protect it! There was some vital part that he had overlooked, and if it suffered damage, then his consciousness would vanish. The thought unnerved him.

Robo Knux combed through himself for hours, as the sun sank lower in the sky and the wind returned, driving the waves against the cliffs, and bending the trees. He was aware that the ambient temperature was dropping, but he didn't care. There was something unknown inside of him, and he was going to locate it before he moved from that spot.

The solution was so obvious that the sun had set and stars were appearing before he discovered it. He had examined his entire body internally from head to toe before returning to his brain and staring at it. He happened to glance at some of the notes accompanying the blueprints, and the shock that hit him almost pitched him off the clifftop. His computer chips and circuits were in a protective sealed container, yes. The container itself was filled with a thick fluid comprised of nano-synapses to enhance his computer's capabilities.

Robo Knux's brain was almost exactly like Metal Sonic's.

He stared at the darkening horizon and listened to the roar of the sea. He possessed the same quasi-living mind that Mecha did. Therefore Robo Knux was capable of everything that Mecha was. He didn't know how to respond to this revelation - it turned his entire identity upside down. He was alive. And that meant that he could die. He thought of some of the upgrades that he had received, when some third-party inventor had plugged new hardware into his brain. What if the inventors had made a mistake and destroyed the nanites?

Robo Knux had never known fear like this. It immobilized him and crushed him, and the growing night seemed terrible and vast, full of hidden dangers. "I'm alive," he said aloud. "And I can die. What am I going to do now?"

Suddenly the cliff seemed very high, and the ocean below terrified him as never before. He crawled away from the edge and curled up at the foot of a tree, shielding his face from the world with his bulletproof arms. Now he understood, dimly, why Metal Sonic had gone in the directions that he had. And Robo Knux hated Mecha with a deathless, furious hatred. Mecha had escaped his imprisoned robotic existence, and Robo Knux could not.

As the night deepened, so did Robo Knux's torment.

By nightfall, Metal Sonic had accomplished two things.

He had travelled all the way to the Mobitropolis valley, and looking down from the hills, he could see the cluster of lights that was New Mobitropolis. The edges of the storm from Riverbase was just hitting, and scattered raindrops plinked on his head and arms.

The second thing he had accomplished was exhausting himself. By his measurements he had travelled more than 300 kilometers on foot in two days, and he had rested very little. His fuel reserves were low, and it looked as if it was going to rain all night.

Aleda and Nox looked out of the backpack and blinked as raindrops struck them. "Oh rats, I hate it when it rains," said Nox. "Mecha, can we sleep inside somewhere, tonight?"

"I would prefer it," said Mecha. "I am sick of nature. I must disguise myself first, however."

"Do Sonic!" said Nox.

Mecha turned his head and glared at him. "That city is New Mobitropolis. The hedgehog himself lives in the vicinity. I have no desire to meet him disguised as him. I will resume my generic fox-form." His skin liquefied and turned silver, then reformed into the fox disguise he had worn before. Then he strode down the hill toward the lights as the rain poured down.

Nox and Aleda rode with their heads poking out. Nox wanted to see where they were going, and Aleda was fascinated by the rain. She opened her mouth to catch drops on her tongue, and enjoyed feeling it soak her fur. The rain also made a musical sound as it beat against Mecha's head, a few inches away. He looked furry, but the rain made a metallic plinking sound that gave him away.

The city lights were further than they looked, and it took Mecha another hour of jogging to reach the outlying streets. He wanted shelter, somewhere out of the rain that was possibly warm. It was not as cold as the previous night, but being wet lowered his body's temperature until he began to shiver. Surely they had hotels here.

The streets were empty and wet, like bars of ebony, and the streetlights cast long shimmering reflections. Mecha observed the trees and shrubbery planted everywhere, and the odd, flowing architecture. This was how it had looked before Robotnik had overthrown it. The Mobians worked fast. He recalled the terbium that had brought about Robotnik's downfall, and remembered how Robotropolis had looked in its final days. And here he was, years later, no longer seeking bloodshed, finding the Mobians returning.

Suddenly his nightmare about zombie robians returned to him, and he suppressed a shudder. Hundreds of people had lost their lives at his claws in this place, and these people would never forgive him for it. Of all places on Mobius, this city was the most dangerous for him, but he needed a place to stay, and no one would recognize him, anyway.

He rounded a corner and saw a sign across the street that said, "The Outside Inn." He was so disgusted at the pun that he nearly walked on, but he checked himself. It had vacancies, and he was drenched. The chao were shivering now, creating a constant vibration against his back. He set his teeth and crossed the street to the open gate.

Mecha found himself in an open courtyard echoing the noise of the falling rain. The inn itself was ahead of him, and wings formed either side of the courtyard, each lined with doors. He glanced down to make sure his fox-disguise was in place, then walked to the main doors and pushed them open.

He stepped into a warm room lit with cheerful yellow lamps. A raccoon sat behind the counter, sipping a mug of something hot and reading a holoscreen with news reports scrolling across it. He looked up as Mecha entered. "Hello! Come in, come in. Terrible night to be travelling." His eyes rested on Mecha's packs and the water dripping onto the floor.

"Yes, it is," said Mecha, stepping onto the rug in front of the counter. "I apologize for muddying your floor. I would like a single room for the night, please."

"Certainly." The raccoon handed Mecha a form and a pen, and Mecha filled it out, his slight shivering making his handwriting wobbly. He gave his name as Melthision, and handed over his debit card. The raccoon charged it, handed it back, and gave Mecha a key. "Room 108. Outside, three doors to your left."

"Thank you," said Mecha, and walked back out into the rain.

Door 108 opened to his key and the lights flicked on as he entered. Mecha closed the door and pulled off his two packs. "We're here," he told the chao.

"All right!" exclaimed Aleda, looking out and seeing the four walls. "This is more like it!" She bounded onto the carpet and ran around, exploring. Nox was only interested in locating the food.

The room was small and clean, and a window in back was open a crack to let in fresh air. There was a single bed and a desk with a holoviewer on it. Mecha located the thermostat and turned on the heater, then entered the adjoining bathroom to towel himself dry. He resumed his original shape for convenience, and as he dried himself, he reviewed logs from his nano-controls. His skin didn't like holding a disguise for so long, particularly not a disguise as complex as the fox's. The nanites were tired, and his skin ached all over. His muscles were cold and stiff, and his fuel levels were low. These were new sensations to him, but he knew that the more complex his body became, the more maintenance it required.

He returned to the main room to find Nox and Aleda had turned on the holoscreen and were sitting on the bed, munching from a ration pack and watching a show about the life and social habits of humans. "What are you doing?" he exclaimed.

Aleda gave him a surprised look. "The holoviewer was here. Why not use it?"

Why not indeed? Mecha shrugged and pulled out a pack of rations for himself. He was dismayed to see that there were only three left. They had consumed the food faster than he had expected. He would have to buy more before they set out tomorrow.

Mecha carefully ate his own supper, and watched the holoscreen against his will. He had studied humans, himself, while plotting to destroy them, but this show presented them as people, just like Mobians. He was surprised that it was airing on a Mobian network.

He finished eating and turned off the holoscreen, to the protesting cries of the chao. "Enough," he told them. "We are here to rescue Shadow, not amuse ourselves. I wish to leave at dawn, and we must all be rested." He prodded the bed, thinking of how his metal spines would shred the mattress, then added, "I will sleep on the floor." He pulled off the bedspread, spread it on the floor and said, "You two may have the bed if you wish."

"Okay," said Nox, but Aleda only nodded and looked sly.

Mecha turned off the light, rolled himself in the blanket on the floor, and allowed the nervous tension to leave his body. He spiraled into sleep at once.

Aleda waited until she was certain that he was asleep, then jumped off the bed, scampered to him and burrowed into the blanket. She snuggled under his chin with a happy sigh. She couldn't sleep without him, and he ought to know that by now.

She was almost asleep when she heard movement, and heard Nox sniffling. She peeked out of the blanket to see Nox curling up under a corner. He missed Shadow and didn't want to be alone on the big bed. However, he didn't want Mecha's company, or even Aleda's. He wanted Shadow. But Shadow was gone, so Nox sought what companionship was available. Aleda felt sorry for him, and wondered what she would do if circumstances were reversed. If Mecha was gone, she would cry, too. She didn't want to lose her Red-Eyes. Slowly another thought formed in her head. What if someone threatened to take Mecha from her? Would she fight them, maybe kill them?

Suddenly Mecha's actions in the temple weren't as fearsome as she had thought. Mecha didn't want them to take her, so he had fought to protect her. She should have been grateful, but she had only whined like a baby and hurt his feelings. No wonder Melchizedek had told her to forgive Mecha.

"Aleda," she told herself, "you're just a stupid baby chao. Even Nox understands things better than you. You'd better keep quiet and learn things, or you'll hurt Mecha's feelings so bad that he won't love you anymore."

This prospect frightened her more than anything in that temple, and she huddled a little closer to Mecha. It was a long time before she fell asleep.

Lintel the otter and Kray the opossum sat back to back, facing opposite computer screens. It was late, but they had volunteered to stay up and work on the secondary project. Robotnik had agreed. He was working on the primary project, himself; the one involving chaos emeralds. He was locked in lab three with his four servant robots, and the other scientists were free of observation for the night.

Lintel and Kray were good with nanotech integration, and between them, the visual sensor upgrade for the robot design was almost complete. But that was not the reason that they had decided to leave the dormitory - they wanted to talk in private.

Lintel spoke without turning his head. "The only time the cliff path is passable is at low tide."

Kray replied, also without turning, "Could you swim it?"

"At low tide, maybe," said Lintel. "I'm a river otter, not a sea otter. You have to be strong to swim those currents, and I'm not that strong."

"I walked through the forest today," said Kray in a low voice. "I followed the top of the cliffs until I could look down unto Barlet's bay. There's a boathouse down there, and a dock. But I didn't see any boats."

There was a brief silence, and Lintel changed a calculation on his screen. Kray muttered, "I can't stand him." There was no need to mention Robotnik by name. "I still have nightmares about the roboticizer. When they deroboticized me, they had to replace my right lung and kidney with synthetic models. It's all because of him. How many more people will die because of our work here?"

"I don't know," said Lintel softly. "If only we had a weapon of some kind! I worked through grad school in a firing range. Sira didn't like it, but we had to eat somehow. Gosh, I miss her."

There was another long silence. Then Kray said, "Shadow is a weapon."

"Not for long," said Lintel, feeling sick as he spoke the words. "You know what's going to happen to him."

"I know," said Kray, turning around at last. "We can't stop Robotnik from doing his experiments, but what if we got Shadow on our side? He'd made contact with the outside twice before we shut down his hardware. What if we had him send a message from us, so someone would know we're in trouble?"

"If we're going to try, it has to be now," said Lintel, looking at Kray. "Before Robotnik completes his project."

Lab one was silent, lit only by fluorescent bulbs along the south wall. Shadow hung in his restraints, wishing he could sleep, but he could not. With Mekion offline, the left half of his body was heavy and dead, and he could no longer support himself with his left leg. His right leg still worked, but trying to balance his semi-paralyzed body with his ankles chained made his muscles cramp. Then he had to relax and hang by his hands, and his right arm took most of the weight. Sooner or later his shoulder would dislocate, and then he'd be in real pain.

When not trying to find a position that was less painful, he dwelt on his fears and memories of Dr. Robotnik. The dictator who had misused the roboticizer, who had jumped at the chance to use the Eclipse Cannon, who doubtless wanted to trap Metal Sonic and kill him.

Robo Knux's words were hollow and mocking now. "Your only purpose is my purpose for you." It seemed to Shadow that his whole life had been full of other people's purposes. Gerald's purpose, Robotnik's purpose, Mecha's purpose. The only person who had not used him was Maria, and she was dead.

Mecha had used him in the beginning ... then Mecha's own plots had rebounded and crushed him, and Shadow had picked up the pieces. For the first time Shadow's life had had meaning, for his goal was to help Mecha rebuild his mind. And he had accomplished that goal, at least partly. Mecha no longer wallowed in self-pity, but now he was hunting a supernatural being who Shadow doubted existed. Maybe Mecha had truly lost his mind and Shadow hadn't noticed until now.

He smiled bitterly at the floor. He had gone with Mecha to look for the Master Designer, and now he was chained to a torture implement, at the utter mercy of his enemies. "Some Master Designer you are," he whispered to the silent room. "You let Maria die, and you let this happen to me. I don't think you exist at all. If you do, then do a miracle and get me out of here. Right now."

The airlock door opened and Shadow's heart almost stopped. He struggled to lift his head, and saw two of the Mobian scientists hurrying toward him. "What do you want?" he whispered, trying to calm his racing heart. This was a coincidence. There was no Master Designer, because those two had probably come to hurt him.

The opossum planted himself within arm's reach. "I'm Kray and that's Lintel," he whispered. "We're all being held prisoner by Dr. Robotnik."

"Sure," whispered Shadow. "You just want me to talk to you."

"No, hear me out," said Kray. He explained about GUN seeming to answer their request for a larger facility and sending them here, only to find that Robotnik had orchestrated it all.

As Kray paused for breath, Lintel stepped forward. "Robotnik wants to fabricate chaos emeralds, and that's why you're here. You have an exceptionally strong chaos field, and he wants to study you. He's going to start tomorrow, so we had to talk to you now. Before he starts ..." He trailed off and looked at Shadow with such pity that Shadow felt dread uncoil in his stomach.

"What do you want me to do?" he whispered. "If you hadn't noticed, I'm chained up."

"We'll reactivate your hardware," said Kray. "Then send a message to the government - no, the other nanotech companies - that we're in danger."

"They won't listen to you," said Shadow. "You're Mobian. You should contact the Great Kingdom."

Kray and Lintel exchanged looks. "It's worth a try."

"Reactivate Mekion," said Shadow. "And tell me what you want me to say."

Lintel unclipped a small scrambling device from the side of Shadow's head, and Mekion booted up immediately. He stood up on both feet and lifted his head.

Kray was thinking furiously. "Okay, say this. 'The Analytech Nanotech firm is being held hostage by Dr. Robotnik on Deimos Island. We are being forced to conduct illegal experiments, and all external communications are blocked. Please send help. Kray, Lintel, Barlet, Touis and Nick Karabian."

This message told Shadow not only his location, but what Robotnik meant to do to him. He swallowed and said to Mekion, "Locate high-frequency channel and transmit at full power."

Mekion located a free port within seconds and blasted the message through. As it went, Mekion detected a warning alert within the system itself. "Lintel, Kray," he whispered, "I've been detected. You'd better run."

It was already too late. The airlock rotated open and Robotnik stood there, arms folded, flanked by two robots. "Well well," he said, seeing Lintel and Kray's guilty expressions, and that Mekion's red eye was on. "Calling for help, are we?"

He walked over and clamped the scrambling device back on Shadow's head, and Mekion again went dead. Then Robotnik turned to face the Mobians. "No one. Ever. Betrays. Me." He twitched a finger at the robots, and each one fired a single bullet from the pistols in their chests.

Lintel and Kray hit the floor with cries of pain as the bullets struck both of them just above the knee.

"Tell your friends what you did," said Robotnik, smiling at their pain and terror. "Next time the bullets will be through your brains. Now get out."

Lintel and Kray limped and struggled to the airlock, panting and whimpering, until the airlock rotated shut and silence fell. Robotnik motioned to his robots. "Clean that up." The robots moved to clean the blood off the floor, and Robotnik turned to look at Shadow.

Shadow was watching him with his natural eye, his head tilted to one side because of the weight of his metal spines. "You're sick," he spat.

"So some have told me," said Robotnik, clasping his hands behind his back. "I never let their opinions stop me, however. Who did you call?"

Shadow's mouth twisted in a smile. "I'm chained and awaiting torture. How do you plan to make me tell?"

"I don't plan to make you do anything," said Robotnik. "When I'm through with you, you won't be able to stop from telling me whatever I ask."

"Where have I heard that before?" said Shadow, still smiling cynically. "Oh yeah, on Prison Island before they put me in cryogenic freeze. You know what I told them? Nothing."

Robotnik smiled again, but his eyes were cold and hard. "Still the same nasty attitude. I liked it when I opened your chamber, and I still like it. I have no intention of breaking you. As your esteemed master showed me, there are other ways of persuading a mind to do something it doesn't want to do. I seem to remember some intriguing stories about Mekion making Shadow do some awful things."

Shadow's smile vanished.

Robotnik's smile widened. "You see it now. That transmission you sent to Metal Sonic was your last. Oh yes, I can guess the destination of your transmission. By calling him here, you are playing right into my hands." He held up one hand - the roboticized one - and clenched it into a fist. "Revenge is sweet." He turned and walked to the airlock, summoning his robots, which followed him out.

Shadow was alone again, and gazed at the airlock. "I'm glad he thinks I'm so predictable," he thought. "He'll never dream that I went to the Great Kingdom, and that they received it, too. But Mekion ... not again, not again ..."

He let his head hang, remembering the nightmare of being controlled by his logical robot half. And Robotnik thought he could do it again.

"So, oh mythical Master Designer," Shadow whispered aloud, "I try asking for help, and any potential help I receive is shot down before it can get started. Thanks a lot. Now I know that Mecha's insane. And ... I soon will be."

He drooped in his restraints and black despair swallowed him.

Robotnik returned to the main lab and locked the airlock, so no one could enter without his permission. He tossed his keycard on the computer console and settled into one of the desk chairs. He was too wide for it, and its springs groaned in protest. He sighed and gazed at his two screens. He liked robots so much better than real people. These scientists were brilliant - he had read all their reports himself - but they were Mobian. Shifty, hard to control, stubborn.

Free will - how he hated it! Any will that opposed his own was necessarily enemy, and he had had to use force to cow them. He was certain that he had conquered the opossum and otter, but the squirrel and chipmunk ... and the human. He hadn't known that Nick Karabian was human until he had met him here at the facility. Humans were even worse than Mobians when it came to opposing him resourcefully. The biggest problem was that if Robotnik mistreated another human, the human laws would punish him, and such things were messy and inconvenient. Better for Nick to simply disappear without a trace.

Better for them all to disappear.

A message appeared on screen, and Robotnik raised an eyebrow. Speaking of free will ...

He opened it, and a familiar voice drawled through the speaker, "Good evening, Doctor. I am going to kill you."

"Hello, Robo Knux," said Robotnik, unperturbed. "I expected you to contact me long before this."

"Flying to Deimos Island had me distracted," said Robo Knux. "I want my upgrades, and I want them now."

"We have one set ready," said Robotnik, checking the logs, "and another set is on the way."

"Good," said Robo Knux. "I want them installed tomorrow. What are they?"

"Optics," said Robotnik dryly. "They wanted to improve your senses first."

He expected Robo Knux to become angry, but instead the robot said, "Eyes. Yes, of course I need better visual sensors." He was silent a moment, then said, "Robotnik, I need to ask you a question."

"Go ahead," said Robotnik, leaning back in his chair.

Robo Knux hesitated, then said, "Did you know that my primary computer is based on a nanite design?"

"Yes," said Robotnik. "All the Mecha-bots rely heavily on nanotechnology for their processors. I built them that way to increase their performance against a certain hedgehog. It also makes you dependent on support and backup, because those nanites will eventually starve if they don't receive care. Subconsciously, both of you know it, and it's the basis for your loyalty programming."

Robo Knux was silent for a long time, and the only way Robotnik knew he was still there was because the transmission link was still open. Robotnik waited. Robo Knux had at last discovered his true nature, and Robotnik wasn't sure what he would do. Robo Knux had always been unpredictable, but he had finally unlocked the secret of his own power, and was cautious about his next move. Robotnik didn't know that Robo Knux was being eaten alive by fear.

Finally Robo Knux said, "I want the upgrade."

"Fine," said Robotnik. "But you haven't kept your end of the bargain. I asked you for a chaos emerald."

"And you'll get one," said Robo Knux, sounding like his old cocky self again. "I'll deliver it after the upgrade is complete. And I want your Mobian slaves to oversee the upgrade, not you."

"And why is that?" said Robotnik, amused.

"You'll pull something," said Robo Knux. "I'll leave the emerald with the slaves. How's that?"

Robotnik thought quickly. He could oversee everything with his four robots. "Fine," he said. "Be at the front gates at six AM."

"Affirmative," said Robo Knux, and logged off.

Robotnik sat at the computers, deep in thought, for a long time.

Sonic opened his eyes and yawned. He was curled up in the backseat of the Tornado, which was parked in the airport in Sapphire City. Tails was slouched down in the pilot's seat, still asleep. They had received clearance to land at 2 AM, and neither of them felt like finding a place to stay for the few hours left until dawn.

Sonic rubbed a hand over the fogged plastic windows of the canopy, and looked out. The airport was wrapped in fog, and he could barely make out the shape of the nearest hangar. Beyond that was a wall of white.

Sonic stretched his arms and legs, one at a time, in the cramped seat. It was nice of the humans to finally open their airports to Mobian craft, and he supposed it had something to do with the Great Kingdom pulling itself together. He peered over the seat in front of him at Tails, and saw the fox's chest was slowly rising and falling. Poor kid was exhausted. Sonic decided not to wake him up, and pulled his green chaos emerald out of his coat pocket. "Chaos relocate," he whispered, and teleported eight feet to the right, placing him outside the Tornado. Then, emerald in hand, he set off at a light run across the tarmac, wondering where he could dig up some food.

He also wondered uneasily where Shadow was, and if he and Tails had arrived too late to help him. The Tornado hadn't picked up any more signals. He also wished that Sally was here. She would know how to pinpoint Shadow's location, and she had a way of persuading local authorities to do what she wanted. At the thought of Sally he smiled. He had discovered that the jewelry catalog had a payment plan, so he had ordered Sally's ring express. When he returned to Knothole, there would be a small box awaiting him ...

He rounded a corner and the terminal appeared out of the fog, its windows dark and misted, and the fence around it hung with dewdrops. Sonic trotted through the open gate and went inside. It was warm and dry indoors, and there were two people waiting for early flights, gripping cups of coffee. Sonic was cold and coffee sounded good, so he made his way to the beverage stand and bought two cups.

He was filling his own cup with samples of every coffee flavor in the vats when his cellphone rang. He jumped and nearly spilled his cup. He had forgotten about the phone in his jacket pocket. He punched a button and said, "Hello?"

"Hi Sonic," said Sally's voice. "Where are you?"

"Sapphire City airport," said Sonic, grinning. "Worried about me, huh?"

"Why should I worry about you?" said Sally playfully. "I called to ask about Tails." She laughed.

Sonic grinned. "The trouble with you, Sal, is you're a big faker. We got in at two this morning, and I'm out trying to find some chow before we chase down Shadow."

"That's really what I called about," said Sally, her voice becoming serious. "Can you teleport home? Something's come up, and I need you here."

"Uh oh," said Sonic. "You're being vague, so it must be serious."

"I can't talk about it over the phone," said Sally. "I know Shadow is important to you, Sonic, and I wouldn't ask you this unless I absolutely had to ... and I had to."

"Give me a hint," said Sonic. "So I have something to tell Tails."

Sally was quiet a moment, then said, "Dr. Robotnik."

Sonic felt as if someone had dumped a gallon of ice water down his jacket collar. "No," he said.

"Yes," said Sally. "We need you pronto."

"Okay, you win," said Sonic, his sense of humor oozing out of him. "Let me tell Tails, and I'll be right there."

He hung up, finished filling the coffee cups, and walked back out into the fog. Dr. Robotnik! Sonic's mind backtracked to the last time they had met. Metal Sonic had imprisoned Robotnik in one of his own cells, and Robotnik had engineered an ingenious way to defeat Mecha while there. Robotnik had disappeared shortly after Mecha's defeat, which was in July. It was now the end of November, which meant that Robotnik had been under cover for almost five months. Plenty of time to cook up some new plot. How had Sally heard about it? Why couldn't she tell him over the phone? Were they being watched? The idea thrilled him and fanned his curiosity to burning heights.

The Tornado appeared through the fog, a small biplane resting on its landing gear. Funny that it could think and talk now. Sonic had talked to it through most of yesterday's flight. It reminded him of other robots he had known, but without the attitude. It was picking up Tails's pleasant nature, and Sonic knew that he would like the Tornado very much in years to come.

He peered through the cockpit window at Tails, who was still asleep. Sonic tapped the plane's nose. "Hey Tornado," he said softly, "tell Tails to wake up."

In the cockpit, he heard its voice say, "Acknowledged. Tails, it is six thirty-nine AM, and Sonic desires your presence."

Tails opened his eyes and looked at the computer, then sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Sonic?" he said sleepily. "What're you doing out there?" He opened the door-flap, and Sonic handed him a cup of coffee.

"Keeping up the tradition," said Sonic. "Remember that morning down here when we woke up in the fog, and you got us hot chocolate?"

Tails grinned and held the warm cup in both cold hands. "Oh yeah. Right before all Chaos broke loose."

They sipped their drinks, and Sonic felt the fog condensing on his spines. "Tails," he said, "Sally called and said she needs me back home."

Tails looked up with a frown. "She does? Why? What about Shadow?"

"I said the same thing," said Sonic. "She said she couldn't tell me anything over the phone, but it's about Robotnik."

Tails's eyes widened and his ears laid back. "Uh oh. What's he up to now?"

"That's what I have to find out," said Sonic. "I'm gonna teleport home and check it out. I'll come back down here if I can. If not, I'll call you."

"Okay," said Tails. "Let me know if I can help. If I can't find Shadow, I'll come home."

"Okay little bro," said Sonic. "I hate running out on you like this."

"It's okay," said Tails. "Shadow said something about Robotnik when I talked to him, so maybe you'll be helping save him anyway."

"I hope so," said Sonic. "Although knowing Robotnik, he financed the hit on Shadow and is off doing his own thing. I gotta go now. See you, Tails!"

"Bye, Sonic!" said Tails, and watched as Sonic vanished in a flicker of green light.

Sonic appeared on the road leading from Knothole to New Mobitropolis, and jogged along toward the city. Here the road was wet from the night's rain, and the sky was blue and clear with only a few shreds of vanishing clouds in the north.

New Mobitropolis was quiet so early in the morning, and the gutters were full of water. There were a few people out moving around, and Sonic nodded and spoke to them as he passed. He hardly paid any attention to them, but one individual caught his eye. He was a brown fox, walking down the sidewalk in the opposite direction as Sonic, and as Sonic said good morning, the fox only stared at him. Sonic was several strides beyond him when the fox's look registered - it was one of savage hatred. Sonic looked over his shoulder, but the fox was walking on without a backwards glance. Sonic shrugged and hurried toward Sally's office.

Sally was waiting for him just inside the door. "Hi Sonic," she said, embracing him and handing him a paper at the same time. Sonic was surprised to see that her usually immaculate hair was standing up, as if she had been combing her fingers through it. She motioned to the paper.

"We picked up this transmission about midnight last night. Robotnik's up to his old tricks, but they were smart enough to get a message to the outside." She ran her hand through her hair again, and upon looking at the message, Sonic had the impulse to do the same.

"Hostage on Deimos Island ... Robotnik ... illegal experiments ... send help ..." Sonic looked at Sally in shock. "Good grief! He's got real live scientists this time!"

"Yes," said Sally. She led him down the hall and down a staircase to a windowless room whose walls were covered with maps. "I've had my strategists planning a mission for us since we got the message."

Sonic glanced around at the four Mobians in the room. Three of them were former inhabitants of Knothole, whom he recognized, but the fourth was Fealor Nash. Sonic resolved to ignore him and turned to Sally. "What're we gonna do?"

"First," said Sally, pointing to a map, "we need information. This is Deimos Island. It's about two hundred miles southwest of Sapphire City. Phobos Island is its secondary, about ten miles away. Deimos Island has been under GUN's control for fifteen years, and they have a harbor built here, on the east side." Sally looked at Sonic. "And that's all we can find out. GUN hasn't responded to our inquiries, and we can't get clearance to take pictures with their satellites."

"So how do we find out what's going on?" said Sonic.

Sally pointed to the chaos emerald in his hand. "We need you to teleport down there and check it out. Without being spotted."

Sonic smiled. "So, you need a spy! I'm up for that. Do I get any cool gadgets?"

"Yes," said Sally. "Come on, let's get you equipped and - "

She was interrupted by muffled gunshots from outside. There was a startled silence in the map room, then Sonic said, "Stay here, Sal, I'll check it out." He sprinted from the room.

Mecha had awakened at dawn, and found that Aleda was curled up with her head against his face. He pulled away from her slowly, so as not to wake her up, and pulled off the blanket. Nox was at the far end of the blanket, snoring, and it seemed that no one had used the bed. Mecha smirked at the irony, and transformed himself into his fox disguise. He felt rested and energized, and his biometal responded to his commands with swift precision. Depending on the weather, he could reach Sapphire City within ten hours.

He unlocked the motel room door and stepped outside, shutting it softly behind him. The sky was gray and dim, caught between the dark of night and the blue of day, and the air was fresh and cold. He strode out into the courtyard, breathing deeply and watching his breath forming clouds of mist. He needed to pick up fresh food supplies, then he and the chao would depart.

He located a market that was just opening, and entered. He scanned the store and mapped its layout, and realized that there was more food here than he had ever studied. Being capable of eating had not taught him what to eat, and Mecha realized that his databanks of information were lacking on organic fuel. More to the point, he needed to find food that he could carry and would last a while. Horrors! He would have to ask for assistance.

A teenaged beaver was manning the register, and he sized up Mecha as Mecha approached. "Hi," said the beaver. "Need help?"

"Yes," said Mecha. "I have some travel to do. What food items would you recommend for such an excursion?"

The beaver looked puzzled, for his vocabulary wasn't as large as Mecha's. "You mean you need some stuff to, like, go camping?"

"Yes," said Mecha, annoyed.

The beaver grinned and nodded. "Gotcha. Wait a minute." He dashed out from behind the counter and vanished into the aisles. Mecha waited, tapping one foot and hoping that this Mobian knew what he was doing.

A few minutes later the beaver returned with an armload of packages. He dumped them on the counter and said, "Okay, we got jerky, energy bars, meal bars, granola, this flat bread stuff and cheese to go with it. I left out the wood chips, though, 'cause foxes don't dig beaver food."

"Affirmative," said Mecha, running digital scans on each item. They were not rations, but they contained the appropriate amount of nutrients, so he said, "Very well, I shall purchase them."

"Dude," said the beaver, grinning and sweeping everything into a bag. He charged Mecha's debit card and handed him the bag. "Have fun on your camping trip, man!"

Mecha was on his way back to the motel, glad that locating provisions had been so painless, when he looked up and stiffened. Strolling toward him along the sidewalk was Sonic himself, a distracted look on his face. Mecha tried not to stare, but couldn't help himself. His enemy! The hated hedgehog! How fortunate that Mecha had not disguised himself as him.

Sonic glanced at Mecha and said, "Good morning," and walked right on past. Mecha didn't reply and forced himself to keep walking. He wanted to turn around and rip a few holes in the hedgehog's blue fur, and at the same time he wanted to run as fast as he could. Sonic, who had defeated him, Sonic, who had been kind at their last meeting, Sonic, who Mecha had no reason to hate any longer, but could not stop himself.

Mecha arrived at the motel in mental torment, and entered his room in a sort of trance. He snapped out of it when he saw Aleda and Nox were again watching the holoviewer, and had finished the last three ration packs. "Hi Mecha!" they chorused.

"Turn that off," he snapped. "We are leaving."

"Look, more food!" said Nox, slapping the remote control and leaping onto the floor. Aleda followed him, and they scampered up to investigate Mecha's purchases.

He dumped everything into Shadow's pack, zipped it closed and put it on. "You will see it at mealtime," he told them. "Get into my pack."

"Boy, you're a grouch," said Nox, glaring at Mecha. "Did you wake up on the wrong side of the floor or what?"

Mecha bared his teeth. "Get in the pack."

Aleda scrambled in obediently and said, "Better do what he says, Nox."

Nox obeyed, but took his time, watching Mecha and reading his feelings. Mecha glared at him and fastened the top flap once Nox was inside. Then he slung the pack on his back, left the motel room and went to return the key to the manager.

Mecha was stepping out of the motel's courtyard, and consulting the satellite to map out his route, when he saw a Mobian rat staring at him from across the street. The rat was dressed in shabby robes and looked vaguely like Catter. Mecha pretended not to see him and set off at a fast walk down the street.

"Hey!" called the rat, and Mecha heard running footsteps. He slowed and turned, and the rat ran up to him.

The rat squinted. "Are you Melthision?"

A warning flag waved in Mecha's mind. "No," he said.

"Yeah you are," said the rat. He bared his rodent-teeth. "Catter's still in the hospital, and you killed four of my friends and my brother. You're not a fox. You're a stupid robot." He spat on the ground.

Mecha ground his teeth and forced his voice to remain calm. "I do not know what you are talking about, rat. I suggest that you leave me alone."

To his surprise and fury, the rat grabbed his arm and tapped his nails on it. "Ha, it's metal!" cried the rat. "It looks real, but it's not!"

Mecha jerked his arm away and snarled, "Do not touch me again."

"Sure," said the rat, his eyes dancing with crazed delight. "I have a message from Catter, high priest of Mun-Icytho. But since you're a robot, it won't mean as much." He reached into his robe and pulled out a fat, stubby pistol with a muzzle wide enough to fire walnuts.

Mecha struck like lightning. With one hand he swiped the pistol out of the rat's hand and sent it flying out into the street. With the other hand he landed a devastating punch to the rat's snout, sending him into the street after his weapon. Mecha was running before the rat hit the ground.

The rat screamed, "Help! That guy just attacked me!" The few other people on the street looked around in surprise. The rat scrambled to his feet, seized his gun and fired two shots after Mecha. The gun boomed like a cannon and the kickback knocked the rat down yet again.

Mecha dodged to one side, and both bullets whined past him. As he ran, he slung the pack containing the chao off his back and held it in front of him. If that rat was shooting at Mecha's back, then Mecha preferred to take the hit instead of risking the chao's safety. But bullets of that caliber would do him serious damage. How could projectiles of that size hold together at such velocities?

He activated his scanner and looked for possible enemies. He was just in time to see one blip moving laterally to his own path when again that pistol roared in his ears, and something struck him savagely along the side of his head. He staggered and kept running. Behind him, the rat whooped, "Headwound! I hit it! I hit it!"

The bullet had grazed Mecha's head and left a deep, burning slash in the biometal. The pain enraged him, and he longed to turn back and rip that rat limb from limb. He checked his radar again and saw a red blip travelling toward his location at shocking speed.

Sonic.

Mecha thought quickly. He was fast, but he couldn't beat Sonic in a footrace. Therefore he had to opt for deception. He ducked onto a side street, tore off both backpacks, and transformed his skin into one of the models he carried in his databanks. Then he stepped back out into the street and looked for Sonic.

Sonic raced up to Mecha like a self-propelled bullet. "Knuckles!" he exclaimed. "What's going on? What're you doing here?"

"No time now," said Mecha in the echidna's voice. "It's Metal Sonic, I saw him! He ran that way."

Sonic was so close that Mecha could count his spines and see his reflection in Sonic's eyes. He was tempted again to reach out and grab Sonic's throat - it would be so easy -

"Mecha's here?" said Sonic. "Right, I'm on it!" He darted away up the street.

Mecha deliberately picked up his packs again, and carrying them in his arms, he walked down the street toward the edge of town. "What's happening?" Aleda asked over the network.

"Shh," he replied. "I will explain once we are out of danger."

Mecha was gratified to see Sonic run by twice more, and Sonic paid no attention to him. Shapeshifting had its advantages, but Mecha needed more models to choose from. Turning into well-known people was too dangerous.

The houses became fewer, and Mecha glimpsed the hazy blue edge of the Great Forest ahead of him, the rising sun gleaming on the treetops. Mecha turned back into a fox, and sprinted for the trees.

Sonic was worried and tense, and he ran around New Mobitropolis eleven times without ever seeing a sign of Metal Sonic. The whole situation set every warning bell in his mind to clanging. Mecha had claimed that he was finished with senseless killing, but this rat with the gun was claiming that Mecha had attacked him ...

The more Sonic thought about it, the less sense it made. Even when Mecha had been running loose with a murder fetish, his grudging respect for life meant that he killed only if someone meddled with him. So why in the world would Mecha come to New Mobitropolis and maul someone who was carrying a gun that big? The rat didn't look hurt. If Mecha had wanted him dead, the rat would be dead in some clean, scientific fashion.

Sonic ran back to where the rat panting for breath on the sidewalk. "I haven't seen a sign of Mecha," Sonic told him. "If Knux hadn't told me he saw him, I'd say you're making this up."

The rat lifted his head and glared. "That thing can shapechange. I saw it do it. It went from a fox into this freaky-looking blue hedgehog thing. It's probably disguised itself by now."

"So what?" said Sonic, laying his ears back in a frown. "If he was trying to kill you, you'd be dead. I'm not gonna stick up for him, but he might not even be here, and you're running around with a superglock."

The rat clicked the safety on his pistol and thrust it back inside his robes. "You said the echidna saw him too. So go ask the echidna."

Sonic looked around, but Knuckles had vanished. "I don't have time for this," he muttered. "Fire that gun again and you'll have more than Mecha to worry about. I'm outta here." Sonic turned and ran, vanishing up the street in two seconds.

The rat smiled and strode toward the city limits.

Mecha reached the eaves of the Great Forest and stopped to get his bearings. The trees here were old and tall, and the underbrush was dense and tangled. He pushed his way into it, wet twigs and leaves scraping harmlessly over his metal skin. Everything was dripping from the night's rain, and the ground was sticky with mud and decayed leaves.

He walked until he was surrounded by trees and felt slightly more protected than he did in the open. Then he set both backpacks on the ground and looked up at a nearby tree. Satellite views were well and good, but he wanted to see the lay of the land for himself. It was at times like these that he most missed his hoverjet, because blasting up twenty or thirty feet had been simple. Now he had to try something more difficult. Like climbing a tree.

"Stay here," he told the chao, who flipped open the backpack's top flap and looked up at him. "I am not going far. I want to plan a course and must decide whether to remain in the Great Forest or not."

Aleda looked around at the trees. "We've been in forests before. Why is this one so great?"

"It's not that kind of great, silly," said Nox. "It's called that because it's big."

Mecha turned his back before they saw him smile, jumped and caught a low-hanging branch, and swung himself up into a tree. The chao watched him climb, and Aleda said, "That looks fun."

"Oh, it is," said Nox. "The only problem is that you can slip and fall."

The tree Mecha was climbing was an evergreen, and before long he was out of sight among the pine needles. Nox scrambled out of the pack and picked up a pine cone. "Hey Aleda, look at this! Isn't it cool?"

Aleda jumped out of the pack. "Yeah! What is it?"

"It's the cocoon of a type of bug, I think," said Nox, turning it over in his paws. "I think it splits open along these cracks."

Aleda's eyes widened and she backed away. "That's a really big bug."

Running footsteps through leaves. Both chao looked up to see a hedgehog skid into sight, gasping for breath. It was Melchizedek, the hedgehog from the barn. His spines were stuck full of leaves, and his boots were even muddier than before. He looked at them, then turned in a half circle, searching. "Where's your master? Where's Mecha?"

"Up that tree," said Aleda, pointing.

Melchizedek looked up. "Oh, good. You have to get out of here, now. Catter's followers are after you, and he's already called his contacts in Riverbase. Avoid Riverbase at all costs. Call Mecha down, and RUN!" He ran, himself, as if all the priests of Mun-Icytho were after him.

As he vanished, Aleda said through the network, "Mecha, that rat guy is still after us. We have to get out of here."

"Yes, I see him," said Mecha the same way.

There was a slithering, scraping sound, and Mecha slid out of the tree amid a shower of pine needles and bark. The chao bounded back into their pack. Mecha put on both packs and jogged southwards, weaving through the trees and brush.

"Mecha," said Aleda through the network, "we have to stay away from a place called Riverbase. The rat's talked to his friends down there."

"How do you know that?" Mecha replied, startled.

"Melchizedek ran up," said Aleda. "He was all freaked out. He told me to tell you that, then he ran off. I think they're after him, too."

"Aleda," said Mecha so softly that even though the network she could barely hear him, "I was operating my scans at full power. No one approached you or I could have detected them."

"I saw him, Mecha," said Aleda softly. "Nox and I both did."

Mecha was silent for a long moment, then said, "Perhaps my scanner is faulty." He knew that his scanner wasn't faulty, however. His scanners were his second pair of eyes, and he kept them maintained and updated. But there were ways of fooling a scanner, like with a frequency blocker that kept a scanning signal to bounce and not return to its source. This hedgehog must be carrying one to escape Mecha's scans. Anyone who escaped his scans must be a spy or an enemy, and Mecha fretted as he ran.

Who was this hedgehog? Why was he following them and giving them warnings? Mecha wondered if he ought to go to Riverbase, then examined the logic of that and decided that keeping away from civilization was in his own best interests. He had stirred up the members of what looked like a far-reaching religion, and they were hunting him. He had never dreamed that looking for the Master Designer might be so dangerous. What if this Melchizedek was in league with the priests? Mecha hadn't yet laid eyes on him, and his fear of this invisible hedgehog bordered on superstition. Mecha had run and hid and disguised himself, and still this hedgehog tracked him. It frightened him more than any priests, and he broke out of the Great Forest and ran like the wind.

Sonic arrived back at Sally's office and entered. Sally was waiting for him, looking concerned and curious. He shook his head. "Some joker said Metal Sonic attacked him and the guy went trigger-happy. No sign of Mecha, and I think the guy was making it up."

Sally frowned at him. "We don't need that kind of thing in New Mobitropolis. Did you call the police?"

"The guy was leaving town," said Sonic. "I didn't think it was important enough."

Sally shook her head. "Sonic, a crazed gunman is always call for the police. Not everybody can dodge bullets the way you can."

Sonic shrugged. "I have other stuff on my mind, okay Sal? Like teleporting to an island I've never seen. What if I teleport into the ground, or inside a tree?"

"You'll be fine," said Sally, but she suddenly felt weak in the knees. She had forgotten that particular limitation to Sonic's ability. She struggled to mask her fear and led him back downstairs. This time she opened a door to the left and ushered him in.

Sonic looked around and whistled. It was a big room lined with racks of electronic equipment, and it smelled of fresh plastic and silicon. Sally walked to a shelf and took down a headset. "Put this on," she said, handing it to Sonic.

He put it on and found that instead of a microphone, it had a tiny camera lens that rode against his forehead. "Now this is cool," he said, positioning it. "How does it work?"

"It records video into this datastick," said Sally, sliding it into a slot under the lens. "It can hold two hours' worth, so don't take longer than that. Press the lens to turn it on."

Sonic did so and heard the faintest of beeps as it came on. He pressed it again to turn it off.

Sally crossed the room and picked up an object like a black box with a strap. She slipped it on Sonic's upper arm and tightened the strap. "This is a radar device. Right before you leave, turn it on and let it run for five seconds. It'll radar-ping the whole island and give us a map to work with." She showed him the power button, then led him back into the map room.

This was the part that Sonic had been worrying about. He dug his chaos emerald out of his coat pocket, then took off his coat and draped it over a chair. He turned to the map spread on the table in the center of the room, then met Sally's eyes and saw the fear there. He forced a smile. "It's okay, Sally. If something goes wrong, I'll come back. Otherwise I guess I'll be gone until I can snoop around a bit."

He inhaled and looked at the dot on the map that was Deimos Island. "Okay, this is an island. You said they have a harbor on this side? Like with a dock?"

"Yes," said Sally. "Aim for that."

"I will," said Sonic. He imagined a dock with the ocean lapping the posts, and forced himself to stare at the map. Without blinking, he lifted his emerald and said, "Chaos relocate."

The world shifted in the blink of an eye, and Sonic found himself standing on a dock, facing a boathouse with a lock on the door. He spun in a circle, looking around. He could hear the roar and crash of waves somewhere close, and the water beating the dock looked rough and unfriendly. Towering above him was a rocky cliff, streaked with layers of color and overhung at the top with tree roots and brush.

"Well, I'm somewhere," Sonic muttered aloud. "Might as well take a look around." He smacked the camera on his forehead to turn it on, and trotted off the dock and onto a path that wound steeply up across the cliff face. He followed it at a lope.

The path twisted up and out of the cove that sheltered the dock, and Sonic was blasted by the wind and saw the surf pounding the cliffs. "Dang, that looks dangerous," he thought, watching the foam fly, and continued up the muddy path at a near-run.

He reached the place where the path had washed away, but he was moving so fast that ten feet was an easy jump. He leaped the gap and continued up the path, once in a while swinging his head from side to side to give the camera a better view.

The path reached the clifftops, and Sonic slowed to a walk, peering around. Up here the wind was even stronger, and he thought he could hear voices. Here the path cut through a patch of stunted trees, and Sonic ducked into them and crept on, wondering if he had found the scientists.

Ahead was a wide cement area, and Sonic glimpsed the gleam of the sun on glass. He dropped to his belly and crawled forward until he could see more clearly. Screened by a tangle of dead nettles, Sonic realized that a helipad had been built on the top of the cliff. A long-bodied helicopter with GUN emblazoned on the side rested there, and a group of humans were unloading crates and boxes from its belly.

Sonic squinted. The humans all wore black GUN uniforms, but there were two Mobians helping unload; a squirrel and a chipmunk. They were directing the placement of the cargo, and as Sonic watched, the humans began carrying everything off the helipad and down a road to his right that led into the trees. Sonic followed them, keeping to the trees. The noise of the wind covered all sounds he made, but it made it hard to listen for the humans, too.

After a few minutes they arrived at a barbed wire fence, and Sonic hung back, watching the squirrel and chipmunk swipe their keycards through a slot at the gate, and herd the humans through as it opened. Sonic had no use for barbed wire, and the sight of it gave him chills. He was thankful that he could teleport through it, but for now he crouched out of sight beside the fence and watched the humans carry things in. Inside the fence were several buildings all connected together, and Sonic sensed that there was something odd about them, but he couldn't decide what it was.

It wasn't until the humans had finished bringing in the cargo, and the squirrel and chipmunk had closed the gate and were walking up to the main doors, that Sonic realized what was so odd about this place. It had no windows. He could see a skylight pyramid on the roof of the main building, but there were no other windows. It was built like a prison.

The squirrel and chipmunk vanished inside, and the doors closed behind them. Silence fell, and Sonic could hear the distant roar of the ocean over the rush of the wind in the treetops. He heard the helicopter take off from the helipad and fade into the distance. When nothing else happened for ten minutes, he decided the coast was clear and slapped the camera on his head to turn it off. He held up his emerald and whispered, "Chaos relocate."

Sonic reappeared on the roof of the main building, and dropped flat beside the skylight, hoping that no one had been looking up at the time. He turned his camera back on, then carefully crawled up and peered through the dusty glass.

Down below, a metal tube large enough to hold a human had been rolled into the middle of the room. A human in a white labcoat stood on one side with his arms inside the machine, and the chipmunk stood on the other side. The squirrel wasn't there. There were also four small robots moving around, carrying tools and watching a rack of equipment and monitors that were plugged into the metal cylinder. Sonic squinted. The robots looked like miniature versions of the old E-series, and he made certain that his camera had a good view of them.

He crawled on his hands and knees all around the skylight, looking at the lab below and trying to figure out what they were working on. (An illegal experiment?) Whatever it was, they were proceeding slowly and carefully, and Sonic thought it looked boring. He crawled away from the skylight, stood up and walked softly across the roof toward the next building. It had a skylight, but it was smaller.

Sonic again lay down beside it so no one would see him. Then he realized he need not have worried. Inside were an opossum and an otter who were lying on cots against the walls. The opossum appeared asleep, and had a thick bandage on his leg. But the squirrel he had seen earlier was working on the otter's leg, and the otter was screaming in pain. Sonic cringed and was glad that the skylight's glass was so thick. The otter was in such agony that he kept trying to bite the squirrel, but he was tied down and couldn't reach.

Sonic watched in morbid fascination for minutes on end. Finally the otter fainted, and Sonic saw the squirrel pull what looked like a bullet out of the otter's leg. Then he hurriedly washed and bandaged the wound, and left the room at a near run, leaving the otter and opossum lying limp and still. Sonic wondered what in the world had happened to them.

There were two buildings left, but only one had a skylight, so Sonic tiptoed to that one. When he peered in this time, he knew he had hit pay dirt. Another of the metal cylinders was set up here, and Robotnik himself was working on it and watching a rack of monitors connected to it. Sonic figured that this was definitely an illegal experiment, and watched for a while. Robotnik didn't move around much, occasionally adjusting one of the instruments beside the cylinder.

At least Shadow wasn't here. Sonic had been worried that Tails had been right. Knowing Shadow, he was probably safe and sound and laughing at the saps who had fallen for his transmission.

Sonic crept back to check on the scientists in the main lab. The squirrel was with the human and chipmunk now, and they were moving around the metal tube, unhooking wires and tubes. Sonic watched with interest, wondering what was inside.

The human opened a door in the side of the cylinder, and reached inside. Sonic stiffened. The human was helping a red robot to climb out - a red robot with long claws. What was Robo Knux doing here? Was Shadow here after all?

Robo Knux stood and looked around the room, his head turning from side to side. Then he looked up at the skylight. Sonic ducked, then slowly looked inside again. Robo Knux had doubled up with his claws over his eyes, and the scientists were gathered around him. Robo Knux swept out his hands, and they backed away. Robo Knux snarled at them and looked up at the skylight again. At once he ducked and covered his eyes, and Sonic realized what had happened. They had upgraded Robo Knux's eyes, which were sensitive to light.

Sonic wanted to laugh and watch some more, but he knew that it was time to leave. If Robo Knux spotted him, it meant a rescue attempt was out of the question.

Sonic turned off his camera, teleported back beyond the fence, and turned on the radar device on his arm. He let it run for five seconds, then shut it off and teleported home.

"What have you done to me?" Robo Knux cried.

He had expected higher-resolution optics, but what he had received was excruciating pain. Pain was new for him; throughout his existence his only method of detecting personal harm was through damage reports. But these sensors were capable of receiving huge amounts of information, so much that they overloaded his brain.

When he climbed out of the vacuum chamber, his first look at the lab had been revolutionary. The shapes were crystal clear, and the sterile grays now leaped to life with blue and violet tints. He could see every hair on Touis and Barlet's bodies, and see every thread in Nick's labcoat. It was amazing!

Then Robo Knux thought he sensed movement and looked up at the skylight. He looked directly into the sun, which had never bothered his old eyes. But now his new eyes were blinded, and pain lanced through them. He clapped his hands to his eyes and wailed, "It hurts! They're too strong! What have you done to me?"

"You have to give yourself time to adjust," said Touis. "Your brain has to generate the necessary pathways..."

"How long will that take?" said Robo Knux, hands still over his eyes. "I'm not thrilled about the pain. I've never had pain before."

Touis glanced at Nick and Barlet, and they all tried not to smile. Robo Knux's tone was so outraged and helpless that it was comical, but pathetic, too. "Owing to the nature of your brain, it may take anywhere from two hours to three weeks for the sensitivity to wear off. Your processor has to learn to compensate for the new information."

Robo Knux slowly lowered his hands and looked at them. "If something strikes one of my eyes," he asked, "will it hurt?"

"Yes," said Touis. "If you want, there's a protective shutter we could install. It protects the sensors from ninety percent of all airborne damage, and also keeps them clean."

Robo Knux thought about this. "Do you have this upgrade on hand, or will I have to wait?"

Touis picked up a sealed plastic container. "Got it right here."

"All right," said Robo Knux, examining his claws with his new vision. "If it helps moderate the pain, I'll do anything."

He climbed back into the vacuum chamber and shut down his systems, and the scientists sealed it.

"Interesting character," muttered Barlet, flicking his tail. "He's psycho. Won't giving him these upgrades make him even more psycho?"

Touis shrugged. "If he has pain restraining him, it may moderate his aggression."

"Or make it worse," said Nick. "I've never seen a robot that was so ... alive."

"I hear the Mecha-bot series is all like this," muttered Touis. "Living beings in metal bodies, trained to be killers by ..." He jerked his head at the wall to indicate Robotnik.

Nick and Barlet shuddered. Touis opened the lid of the container and inserted it into a valve on the side of the vacuum chamber. "Come on, let's do this."

Tails clicked off his phone and slid it into a compartment under the Tornado's control panel. "Well," he said, slumping back in the seat, "Sonic's not coming back."

It was nearing noon, and the Tornado in walker-form was standing in a parking lot, taking up a fraction of a parking space. It had listened quietly as Tails talked on the phone. Now it said, "Query. If Sonic does not return, shall we continue our search for Shadow?"

"I guess," said Tails, resting his head in one hand. "We're not far from the coordinates in that transmission. We might as well check it out."

He punched the Tornado into gear, backed out of his parking space and trotted toward the street. "City map on screen," said Tails. The Tornado's screen flashed on a map with them as a red dot in the center.

"Coordinates are here, Tails," said the Cyclone, drawing a green line on the screen.

Tails turned the control stick and the Cyclone turned down a side street.

The two of them were silent for a while. Tails was worrying about finding Shadow without Sonic handy, and feeling forgotten and abandoned. Sonic had been guarded and cryptic about what he was doing, but assured Tails that Robotnik was up to something bad. And Tails wasn't allowed to help this time, for it was a government operation.

Tails tried not to feel hurt, but he couldn't help it. He had upgraded the Tornado into a superefficient weapon, and he was certain he could take on anything Robotnik threw at him. And Sonic had no use for him.

Tails arrived at the coordinates in the transmission, and looked around. It was a side street with a commercial complex at one end. Nothing spooky or suspicious. "Tornado," he said, "scan for lifeforms. I'm gonna walk around."

"Affirmative, Tails," said the Tornado.

Tails climbed out of the cockpit and stepped onto the sidewalk, examining the ground. Had there been a fight of some kind? He poked around, looking for laserblast marks, broken glass, anything. But the sidewalk was clean and empty.

Disappointed, Tails returned to the cockpit and looked at the radar map. No lifeforms were detected on this street at all. It was empty and ordinary, but Shadow had been here and sent a distress signal. Something had happened ...

"Tornado," said Tails, "do you think I should try to contact Shadow again?"

"I have no opinion," said the Tornado. "Observation. If he was shut down, he cannot communicate with you."

"Yeah," Tails sighed. "I wonder if I should try Mecha. Shadow said that Mecha's threat wouldn't apply now ... and Mecha did say once that circumstances alter cases."

The Tornado said nothing, and Tails grabbed his thrall sphere out of the backseat. He had to do this quick, before he lost his nerve. "Okay," he said, "I'm gonna try to find Mecha. I'll tell you when I'm talking to you again, okay?"

"Yes, Tails," said the Tornado.

Tails pulled off his gloves and placed his bare hands on the sphere. He felt the familiar vibration and musical hum that was transmitted throughout his skeleton, and closed his eyes, holding a picture of Mecha in his mind's eye. He moved his hands slowly, looking for Mecha's frequency, sorting through a jumble of other noises.

Suddenly Tails found it, as he had with Shadow. But it was easier, because Mecha was speaking. "...trajectory will take us over the Gold Pass and down onto the highway there. I believe it is called the Kingdom Road, but I am not certain."

Tails glanced at his map. That was the road leading to Sapphire City. He swallowed and felt like a crumb for eavesdropping, but he pitched his voice to the sphere's note and said, "Uh, Mecha?"

A shrill female voice exclaimed, "Who is THAT?"

"Hush," snapped Mecha. "Tails?"

"Yeah," Tails half-sang. "I'm, uh ..."

"I told you never to contact me," said Mecha, his voice soft and deadly. "How long have you been listening to me?"

"Just a few seconds," said Tails, feeling like an even bigger crumb. The sphere allowed him to hear not only Mecha's voice, but Mecha's heartbeat and the breath travelling in and out of his lungs, and his footsteps. Mecha was running very fast, Tails realized. "I wanted to ask you about Shadow."

"What about Shadow?" growled Mecha.

Tails drew a breath and plunged in. "I picked up a couple of distress signals from him. I talked to him and he said to call you - "

"You spoke to Shadow?" Mecha interrupted, astonished. "When?"

"Yesterday afternoon," said Tails, feeling his hands beginning to sweat against the sphere's smooth surface. "Are you going to kill me for this?"

"I am considering it," said Mecha with an odd tone in his voice. Tails tried to identify it - was Mecha trying not to laugh? Mecha went on, "Repeat your conversation with Shadow. I want to know exactly what he said."

Tails thought back. "I contacted him, and he said that he had been taken prisoner by Robotnik and Robo Knux. He's in a laboratory somewhere, he wasn't sure where. He asked me to send help, and asked me if I'd contacted you. I told him that you'd threatened to kill me, and he said that you might change your mind - "

Was it just his imagination, or had Mecha snickered?

"Then he said that they were turning off Mekion, and I lost him."

That shrill female voice exclaimed, "But they can't turn off Mekion! That's impossible!"

"I told you to be quiet," said Mecha. "Tails, is that all?"

"Yeah," said Tails. "Who is that talking?"

"Aleda," said Mecha.

"Aleda?" said Tails. "She can communicate over the network? What'd you do to her?"

"How dare you insinuate such a thing," snarled Mecha. "When she evolved, she developed that ability. I assume it works on the same principle as your sphere." He paused, then added, "Tails, what is your current position?"

Tails was silent.

Again in that odd tone, Mecha said, "I am not going to harm you. Speaking to you in person is easier than network talk."

"You know those coordinates in Shadow's distress signal?" said Tails. "That's where I am."

"Ah." There was a moment of silence, then Mecha said, "I assume that Shadow is not there."

"No," said Tails.

There was another pause. Mecha said, "I am four hours from your position. Meet me there at 3 PM. In the meantime, see if you can contact Shadow again. We must learn where he is."

"Okay," said Tails. "I'll call you back."

He released the sphere and realized that his back was soaked with sweat. He had been so tense that now his hands were shaking. He leaned against the side of the cockpit until the spell passed and his head cleared. He had spoken to Mecha, and Mecha wasn't going to kill him. Mecha had laughed!

Deep down, Tails was thrilled to meet Mecha again. He thought of working with Mecha, Shadow and the thrall sphere to save them all in the desert, and of how much he had liked Mecha. It was ironic that Sonic had deserted him, so now Tails was befriending Metal Sonic.

Tails grabbed the sphere again and tuned it for Shadow. He thought he remembered the note that had picked up Shadow before ... after a few minutes he found it and listened, eyes closed. He could hear Shadow's heartbeat and his breathing, but it sounded like Shadow was breathing into a tin can. "Shadow?" said Tails. "Can you hear me?"

No response. If Mekion was offline, then Shadow couldn't receive Tails's signal. "Shadow, if you can hear me, say something." Still no response. Tails released the sphere and sighed. Then another thought struck him. What about Robo Knux?

Robo Knux was responsible for Shadow's capture, and Tails knew that thrall sphere communications were untraceable. He thought of the last time that he had seen Robo Knux - the robot had torn open the inside of the rescue helicopter and taken Aleda, and Tails and Sonic couldn't stop him. Tails felt a surge of hatred at the memory, and wished that he knew a way to hurt someone with his sphere. Contacting Robo Knux was a bad idea ... but Tails could eavesdrop on him and see what he could learn.

He placed his hands on the sphere again and adjusted its hum. He tuned it toward Shadow's frequency, then hit the notes around it, picturing Robo Knux and listening for him.

Tails froze. He could hear the humming of a machine, and tried to identify it. It didn't sound like an engine ... maybe Robo Knux was standing beside something noisy. Tails waited for a change, eyes closed and ears pricked. Minutes ticked by, and still he only heard that same humming. At last he pitched his voice to the note and said, "Hey Robo Knux."

"Huh?" said Robo Knux's voice. "Who is that?"

"Take a wild guess," said Tails.

There was a brief pause, then Robo Knux hissed, "Tails. I forgot about you and that sphere."

"Yep," said Tails. "What have you done with Shadow?"

"Oh, so you called about the cyborg freak!" said Robo Knux, his tone becoming amused. "I haven't done anything to him. That's somebody else's department."

"Robotnik's?" said Tails.

Robo Knux was silent a moment, then said, "Keep talking, kid. The more you know, the shorter your life expectancy becomes."

"If you could find me," said Tails, but his confidence was oozing away. What if Robo Knux somehow tracked him?

"Oh, finding you is no big deal," said Robo Knux. "I know where you live."

"That's nice," said Tails, but it was a struggle to keep his voice even. "Are you with Shadow?"

"Heck no," said Robo Knux. "The less I see of that little vermin, the better. Maybe I'll kill him once they're finished."

Tails's ears twitched. "When they're finished with what?"

"Ah, that would be telling," said Robo Knux, sounding as if he were grinning. "I'm out getting upgraded. When I'm finished ... well, let's just say that nobody on this planet stands a chance against me. Especially Mecha."

"Upgrades, eh?" said Tails, his stomach curling into a knot. "What kind?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," said Robo Knux. "Nothing that concerns you. Your tiny brain couldn't comprehend it anyway."

Tails clenched his teeth. "I'm smarter than you think."

"Sure you are," said Robo Knux. "When everyone else you know is an imbecile, you're quite intelligent by comparison."

Tails released the sphere, and that sneering voice vanished. "I hope Mecha shreds him," snarled Tails. He was trembling with fear and fury, and it was several minutes before he calmed down enough to call Mecha again.

Mecha was still running, and Tails said, "It's me again."

"What did you discover?" Mecha asked.

"I listened for Shadow," said Tails, "but he couldn't hear me. Mekion must still be off. So I tried Robo Knux."

"And?" said Mecha, sounding interested.

"He wouldn't tell me anything," said Tails. "He said some mean stuff about Shadow, then told me he was getting upgraded so he could destroy you."

"That's nothing new," said Mecha. "What type of upgrades?"

"He wouldn't say."

"That was bold of you," said Mecha. "I must consider this information. Meet me at three PM, as I said."

"Okay," said Tails. He let go of the thrall sphere and looked at the Tornado's screen. "Okay Tornado, I'm done."

"Affirmative," said the Tornado. "Who are we meeting?"

"Metal Sonic," said Tails. "Right here, at three."

"Is he friend or enemy?"

Tails opened his mouth and hesitated. Mecha used to be the enemy of all enemies, and Tails realized how odd it was to consider him a 'friend'. Mecha might still decide to kill him. "Is there a setting for 'neutral'?" Tails asked. "Neither friend nor enemy?"

"No," said the Tornado. "But I can create one. Is Metal Sonic considered a non-dangerous enemy?"

"Uh ... yeah, I guess."

The Tornado was quiet for a moment as it processed this contradictory phrase, and Tails wondered how a computer could handle such a thing. Then with a start he realized that the Tornado wasn't a computer - it was sentient. Its mind could process seeming anti-logic and not melt down.

"Done, Tails."

"Okay, good," said Tails. He put the walker in gear and said, "Since I have some time to burn, I'm gonna find a jeweler's around here and get my ruby appraised."

"Yes, Tails," said the Tornado.

Sonic sat in a hard wooden chair in the map room in New Mobitropolis. There were more comfortable chairs available, but his spines would shred the padding, so he was relegated to this one instead. Across the room, Sally and her three tacticians were watching the contents of his headset camera on a small screen. Sonic watched over their shoulders, disinterested. He had seen all this once already, and had dictated a report into a recorder. He was currently staring at the back of Fealor Nash's head and weighing the odds of that cougar becoming the next dictator of Mobitropolis.

Sonic wished that he could tell Sally everything. Why not? What was so hard to believe about it, anyway? He had time-travelled before, and Sally had believed him about his adventures on Little Planet. Then they could decide what to do about Nash.

The video reached the part where he had teleported to the roof of the laboratory, and Sally and the others leaned forward, studying the images. "Robo Knux is inside of that tube thing," said Sonic.

"Of course," said one of the tacticians, a deer named Bobby. "That's a vacuum chamber for manipulating nanites in a controlled environment."

Robotnik had been working on one. Sonic wondered what was inside of it. Then he thought of Sally's intention of going on this mission with him, and felt a surge of panic. Sally, going inside that lab with Robotnik, Robo Knux and those robots? He broke out in a sweat. Anything could happen, and Sonic couldn't protect Sally every second. He wished that his emerald belt still worked, but one of the Super Emeralds was missing, and the only way to restore it was to take all seven chaos emeralds to Hidden Palace. Sonic knew where three were, but the others could be anywhere in the world, and there wasn't time to hunt them. Sally could get hurt. Sonic wished that he could take Tails instead; Tails had the Tornado, and could defend himself. But the mission was officially within the government's jurisdiction, and Tails didn't have clearance.

Sonic wiggled his fingers. He had run to Knothole and discovered a small package waiting on his doorstep - Sally's ring had arrived. The band was too big for her delicate little fingers, he thought, but it fit easily on his ring finger. He was wearing it under his glove so he could give it to her at the first opportunity, and this impending mission made him all the more desperate to propose. What if she was killed and he'd never told her that he loved her? Or what if he was killed?

The prospect of his own death was much less of an issue. Sonic had entered far worse situations and escaped unscathed, and he was certain that this was no big deal. Four robots and Robo Knux were hardly a challenge. But for Sally ... he thought of the last time she had encountered Robo Knux, and felt sick at his stomach. If Robo Knux saw her again, he would gut her.

"Hey Sal," he said. She turned and looked at him, and so did the three tacticians. Sonic coughed and said, "Uh, yeah, uh, this is the part where I found those two hurt guys. Do you think they'd been shot?"

Sally turned back to the screen and studied it. "It certainly does look like a bullet wound ... but who would shoot these scientists?"

"Maybe they tried to escape," said Bobby.

Nash fingered his whiskers. "Or maybe they're the ones who sent us that message."

There was a brief pause as everyone stared at him. "You might be right," said Sally. "Which makes it imperative that we get them out of there."

Sonic jumped up. "I'll be outside," he said, and darted for the door.

Sally found him outside half an hour later, pacing up and down the sidewalk in front of the office building. The sun was shining, and the air was clean and cold. Puddles stood along the sidewalks, and hundreds of wet footprints showed that Sonic had been pacing for some time.

"What was all that about?" she asked him, stepping into his path.

Sonic stopped and stood looking at her. "Sally," he said, "I don't want you to go to that island."

She cocked her head. "And why not? Those people need help."

"Yeah, they need my help," said Sonic, eyes blazing green. "Somebody shot those two guys for sending a message. I can dodge bullets, Sal, but you can't."

"Sonic," said Sally, "all my life I let you walk into danger by yourself. I almost lost you in Rio Del Fuego - then we fought Metal Sonic and won. I'm not letting you fight alone anymore."

"Sometimes it's best if I fight alone!" exclaimed Sonic. "I can't watch out for you all the time, Sal! If something happened to you, I'd never forgive myself."

She put her hands on her hips. "Think this through, Sonic Hedgehog. There's five people to be evacuated. They're in a chaos-shielded laboratory. You can't just teleport in and out with them. You need backup."

"I never complained about backup," said Sonic. "I'm complaining about you, in the line of fire." He took one of her hands and turned it over, exposing the scar lines across her palms and fingers. "Robo Knux tried to kill you last time, Sal. He's even meaner now. And his claws have diamond tips." He looked up and saw that she was gazing at him, her eyes a deep, vivid blue.

"Sonic," she said softly, "you really care about me, don't you?"

"I thought Mecha had killed you in Rio Del Fuego, too," he replied, ears flattening. "I can't let that happen again."

"It won't," said Sally. "Come back inside, okay? We finished the video, and we're going to plan our mission. I'll be in charge of evacuation, and you'll be in charge of the break-in."

Sonic looked relieved. "You're not going inside?"

"Of course not!" said Sally, shaking her head. "We're going to need boats ..."

They reentered the building, Sonic feeling much calmer. If Sally was outside the combat lines, then he could handle this.

He did wish that Tails could come, though.


	2. Part 2

Captivity, Part 2

Shadow lay on a platform inside the vacuum tube, an air mask strapped to his face, breathing deeply and evenly. The tube was pressurized, but not emptied of its oxygen, for Robotnik didn't want Shadow dead.

Robotnik's hands were inside of control gloves that guided the mechanical arms inside the tube. A headset was strapped to his face, which allowed him to see through the high-resolution camera inside. He had removed the panelling from the left side of Shadow's head, and was carefully examining the biomechanical circuitry and fiberoptic wiring. If Metal Sonic had built this, then the robot was a genius. Robotnik felt a grudging sort of pride as he poked through Mekion's inner workings. Metal Sonic had learned how to build biomechanical machinery and integrate it into a living body. It was much more sophisticated than roboticization.

He parted the wires and saw a spiderweb of filaments, all laced into Shadow's brain through a gap in his skull. Amazing to think that Metal Sonic was capable of such things! Robotnik had to admire him, robot though he was.

But he wasn't interested in the circuits and biotic machinery. He was looking for a calibration port. Mekion had to have one, because physical access was needed to program a robot in its first stages.

After an hour and a half of slow, careful searching, Robotnik found it: a tiny loose wire with a socket on the end. Robotnik turned it this way and that with the mechanical claws. It looked like a one-millimeter serial plug. The smallest one on the market. And Robotnik had a kit containing hundreds of possible matches, for he had come prepared.

It took another two hours to attach the correct plug to the port and run a wire out of the vacuum chamber to the lab computer. Robotnik took his time. When it came to robots, patience and care were the key; otherwise he might kill Shadow by accident.

Robotnik connected to Mekion's mainframe and found himself facing an operating system based on neuro-synapses instead of binary. The menu on his screen was a mass of colors and shapes that made no sense to anyone but Mekion. Robotnik sat back in his chair and thought. He had accessed Mekion while Shadow was asleep, and therefore he was seeing Shadow's subconscious. He should awaken Shadow and see if that changed Mekion's thought patterns.

He walked to the machinery beside the tube and turned off the sedative gas that was keeping Shadow unconscious. Shadow's brainwaves immediately spiked toward waking, and Robotnik checked on him through the headset. Shadow's natural eye was blinking, and he looked ill from the gas. Robotnik spoke into a microphone. "Shadow, keep absolutely still. I have plugged into Mekion's wiring, and any motion could rip your brains out."

Shadow froze, his eye widening.

Robotnik returned to his computer. The screen had changed, and now he saw a text message on the screen. "Awaiting algorithm. Comply?"

He growled to himself. Metal Sonic was no fool. He had placed an encryption key to protect Mekion from infiltration, and only someone with the other half of the code could enter.

Robotnik reached into a box and pulled out a disk containing his own decryption software. He inserted it into his computer and activated the program. It would systematically decode any algorithm, but it took hours and sometimes days. He shrugged to himself - he could wait. The fact that Shadow might be locked in the tube without food, water or motion capability for days did not worry him at all.

"I'll give you two thousand dollars for it," said the jeweler.

Tails stood inside the jewelry store, surrounded by glass cases full of glittering stones of all colors. He had to stand on tiptoe to see onto the counter in front of him, and the human who was examining his ruby with an eyeglass screwed onto one eye. The ruby was two inches across and very rough, but it flashed in the light with an inner fire.

Tails was certain that it was worth at least five thousand human dollars. "Only two thousand, eh?" he said, raising an eyebrow. "It came from the Floating Island, too. Maybe I'll take it to the other jewelry place downtown."

The jeweler stared at him. He was an older human, going bald on top, with rough hands from handling precious stones. "This is from the Floating Island?" he exclaimed. "Got any proof?"

"I'm friends with the Guardian," said Tails. "He let me do some digging as a favor. You can call him up and ask."

The jeweler looked at Tails, then at the ruby. "I'll give you three thousand dollars for it."

"Six," said Tails, trembling inside at his own boldness.

"Six?" exclaimed the man. "You'll put me out of business! And there's no evidence of where this ruby is from. Four thousand."

"Five fifty," said Tails.

"Five," said the jeweler.

"Done," said Tails.

Tails walked out of the store with a fat wad of cash in an envelope, and the jeweler gloated at getting such a good deal. He grabbed his phone and dialed a number. "Hey Louis," he said, "call our buyer. A Floating Island mineral has turned up, and it's fair size. And hold him to the price he quoted!"

Outside, Tails climbed into the Tornado and sat counting his money. The Tornado asked, "Was the exchange satisfactory?"

"Yep!" said Tails. "Got five thousand bucks right here, which is about eighty-five hundred Mobiads. I could rake up a nice set of eyes for you with this."

"Pleasantness," said the Tornado.

"That's not a word," said Tails.

The sun was shining in a cloudless sky, and although the air was chilly, the sun had warmed the inside of the Tornado to uncomfortable levels, so Tails had folded up the canopy and stowed it under the back seat. Now he shoved his money into a compartment under the control panel and checked his watch. "It's two thirty. We'd better go wait for Mecha."

"Affirmative, Tails," said the Tornado. "Query. Shall I be on the alert for any change in Metal Sonic's status from neutral to enemy?"

"Uh, sure," said Tails. "But I think he'll be friendly. We're both after the same thing, because why else is he on his way here?"

"You are both seeking Shadow, correct?" said the Tornado.

"Yes," said Tails. He put the Tornado into gear and was walking down the street, when the Tornado said, "Why?"

"Why what?" said Tails, too preoccupied with driving to realize that the Tornado's development had just leaped forward.

"Why are we looking for Shadow?" said the Tornado.

"Because Sonic asked me to," said Tails. "And I'm afraid something bad happened to Shadow. But I have to talk to Mecha to be sure."

"Affirmative," said the Tornado, and it was quiet for two blocks. Then it said, "Query. Why does Metal Sonic want to find Shadow?"

"Shadow is Metal Sonic's slave," said Tails. "And kind of his friend, too."

"Affirmative," said the Tornado slowly, sounding bewildered.

Tails rounded a corner and arrived on the side street where Shadow's distress coordinates had led him. Standing on the sidewalk was a muddy-looking fox wearing a backpack over his chest and one on his back. He was staring at the ground, but looked up as Tails approached. Tails hoped that this fox would leave before Mecha arrived.

The fox continued to gaze at him, and walked toward the Tornado. Tails looked up. "Uh, hi."

"Hello Tails," said the fox in Mecha's voice.

Tails squinted. "What the ...? Mecha?"

"Yes," said the fox. "I had to assume this guise to avoid being recognized." His eyes glowed red for an instant, and Tails recognized him under the alternate shape. His eyes were too slanted, and his muzzle too sharp.

Tails grinned. "You make a lousy fox."

Mecha gave him a sarcastic look. "Thank you." He looked around the street. "This is where Shadow was yesterday when harm befell him. But there is no visible evidence of a struggle."

"Yeah," said Tails, wondering if it was safe to climb out of the Tornado. "I looked around, too. There's nothing here."

He watched the fox walk up and down the sidewalk, studying the ground. Mecha was splattered with mud from head to toe. There was a smear across his face where he had wiped his eyes, and his false tail was filthy. Tails recalled the rain the day before, and thought of how muddy it must be out in the wilderness where Mecha had been. Tails felt sorry for him.

Mecha stooped and plucked a tiny object out of the gutter. "Aha," he said, examining it.

"What?" said Tails.

Mecha walked to the Tornado and handed it to him. It was a tranquilizer dart the length of his little finger. It had a short needle in the tip, and inside the hollow core was a plunger that compressed on impact. It was empty.

"This explains why there was no sign of a struggle," said Mecha. "Shadow was tranquilized and probably panicked."

"Who do you think did it?" said Tails, although he guessed the answer already.

"Robo Knux," said Mecha. "He uses this city as his home base. Although use of non-lethal force is unlike him ... I wonder if Dr. Robotnik is the one upgrading him, and demanded Shadow as payment."

Tails shivered. "That's just creepy."

"Yes," said Mecha. "Particularly when you consider what Shadow is capable of." He fell silent and gazed up the street, thinking.

Tails kept quiet, feeling in awe of the android. The seconds stretched into minutes, and the silence became uncomfortable. Suddenly Tails blurted, "You want something to eat?"

Mecha looked at him. "What?"

Tails blushed under his fur and mentally kicked himself. "I mean ... sorry ... you can't eat, I don't know what I was thinking ..."

"Actually, I can," said Mecha. "What did you have in mind?"

Tails stared. "You can eat now?"

Mecha nodded, and Tails looked down at his flightstick instead of those appraising red eyes. "I thought we could go to a restaurant or something. I don't know what you ... you know, like to eat. I skipped lunch because I .. well, I was nervous."

"And still are, to all appearances," said Mecha. "My fuel levels are optimal, but perhaps the chao will accept your offer. I must locate a physical satellite uplink to increase my depth scanner's range."

"Huh?" said Tails.

Mecha raised one eyebrow sarcastically. "To locate Shadow globally, I need a more powerful scanner. And even then, locating him is doubtful."

Tails looked at the Tornado and thought of some of the maps it had generated. "Tornado, could you scan for a certain robot signature in the northern hemisphere?"

"Yes, Tails," said the Tornado. "It would take a minimum of sixteen hours."

Mecha's eyes widened, and he peered into the cockpit. "I did not know that your craft was equipped with artificial intelligence."

"Yeah, it's pretty new," said Tails. "Say hi to Mecha, Tornado."

"Hello, Metal Sonic," said the Tornado.

Mecha's eyes half-closed. "Tails, that name is obsolete. I am no longer a copy of the hedgehog and do not bear his name."

"Oh," said Tails, ears flattening. "Tornado - "

"I heard," said the Tornado. "Modifying 'Metal Sonic' to 'Mecha'. Is this correct?"

"Yes, Tornado," said Mecha. "You are intelligent, for a computer."

"Thank you," said the Tornado.

Tails was relaxing a little. Mecha was much more laid back than he had been at their last meeting. Maybe they could be friends after all. "Um, do you want a ride?" asked Tails, jerking his head toward the back seat.

Mecha looked in. "The seat is obstructed by debris."

"Oh, yeah." Tails's face grew hot again, and he reached back and shoved everything into the floor. "There you go."

Mecha said nothing about Tails's housekeeping methods. He nimbly swung up on the Tornado's side and climbed into the rear seat, pulling off his two packs as he sat down. One he set on the floor, and the other he set in his lap and opened. Two chao heads poked out.

Tails recognized the black one. "Hi, Nox! Who's the other one?"

"I'm Aleda," said the blue chao, looking at Tails. "Hey, I know your voice. You're the one who talked to us earlier. And I remember being outside in the sun with a lot of people ..." Her little face puckered in a frown.

"Yes," said Mecha, "and it was most unpleasant."

Tails turned to face the Tornado's controls and turned on the engine. He guided it up the street, and heard the chao crowing in delight as the walker moved. He glanced in the rearview mirror at the fox that was Mecha, riding along with one arm resting on the side of the cockpit. He still had his sharp metal claws, Tails noticed. He tried to focus on driving, and not think about the fact that Metal Sonic was sitting in the backseat, within arm's reach of the back of Tails's neck. Tails tried not to let the fur on his neck stand up, but it disobeyed him and bristled, becoming super-sensitive to the feel of the seat and every breath of air that passed through the open cockpit. His eyes kept flicking to his rearview mirror to see what Mecha was doing, but Mecha was watching the street pass by and paid no attention to him.

Suddenly Mecha hissed a curse and turned his head the other way, shielding his face with one hand. Tails looked around and saw two rats, one in a shabby brown robe, walking along the sidewalk and watching the Tornado pass, pointing and whispering to each other. Mecha gazed intently in the other direction, and Aleda and Nox ducked out of sight.

Tails said nothing until they were a block from the rats, and Mecha had stopped hiding his face. Then Tails turned his head and said, "Do you know those rats?"

"I had an unfortunate encounter with some of their companions," said Mecha, his voice clipped and ears pointed.

"Yeah," said Aleda. "They tried to kill us."

Mecha twitched and tried to disguise it by stroking Aleda.

Tails watched in his rearview mirror. "Why'd they try to kill you?"

"I told them that their god was artificial," said Mecha, noticing Tails's eyes in the mirror and looking at him.

Tails tried not to laugh. "You did what?"

"I would prefer not to discuss it now," said Mecha.

Tails wanted to laugh, for tension and fear were making him giddy, but Mecha's eyes were daring him to laugh. Tails glanced at those claws again and swallowed his humor. He pulled up to the curb. "Um, what do you think of eating here? Sally loves this kind of food."

Mecha glanced up at the sign. Ethnic human cuisine. He knew nothing about it and wasn't hungry anyway. "I have no opinion. If you wish to eat here, that is fine."

Tails turned off the engine, told the Tornado to stay alert for possible car thieves, and climbed out. Mecha followed him, carrying Aleda and Nox. Tails was determined to dig the god-story out of the android, but his hands were shaking as he pushed open the door. He liked Mecha, but he was terrified of him, too. Perhaps he would live longer that way.

"Chaos relocate!"

Sonic and Sally appeared on the dock on Deimos Island. The tide was out, and the water that had been lashing the pilings was low and quiet. The water out beyond the harbor was washing against the cliffs with a sleepy rumble that echoed in the bay. Sally and Sonic peered around, looking and listening. "It's a lot quieter," Sonic breathed. "Want me to warp us to the top of the cliff?"

"No, I want to see the path," said Sally. They both kept their voices down by instinct, as if this island was filled with watchful enemies.

The two left the dock and walked up the path. It was dry and sandy, and Sally noticed that logs had been set into the steepest parts to act as steps. She tried to observe everything as they climbed out of the cove and ascended the cliff face. Sonic was walking on the balls of his feet, alert and tense. The sun was swinging toward the west, for it was about three o'clock, and they could hear birds singing in the trees on the clifftops.

Sally looked out at the vast ocean and thought of how far from the mainland they were. It was so far, and with a rescue party to manage! She had come with Sonic to observe this island herself, and make contact with the scientists if possible. She needed to know the condition of the two injured scientists, and find out what resources they had. It was a delicate operation to remove five people from under Robotnik's nose.

They reached the gap in the path, and Sonic teleported them to the other side. "Not far now," he murmured. "I'll feel better once we're in the trees."

Sally nodded. She, too, was feeling conspicuous and exposed out here on this path.

Inside the lab, in a vacuum chamber, Shadow blinked his natural eye. He had just lost the sight in his robot eye, and his robot half suddenly felt hot and tingled. He had been lying here for hours, not daring to move because of whatever Robotnik had done to him. He had been able to see a wire leading up toward his ear, out of the corner of his robot eye, but now his robot eye was off.

Something was happening. Mekion's thoughts and commands had accelerated, and it was like listening to a recording on high speed. It made him dizzy. "Mekion," he said to his robot half, "what's happening?"

"Standby," Mekion replied.

An upgrade. The thought sent chills down his spine. Mekion was being upgraded, and any time that happened, Shadow's life became miserable.

The noise in Mekion's half continued, and Shadow could only listen and wait. Robotnik was poking around in there, and Shadow half-hoped that Robotnik broke Mekion by accident. It would teach Robotnik a lesson.

Suddenly Shadow had the odd sensation that Mekion was bigger. He flexed both hands - no, his body size had not changed. Something had been altered in his mind, and it felt alien. "Mekion?" he said.

"Standby," Mekion repeated.

Then it was over, and Mekion was silent. Shadow lay still, wondering what would happen next. Two mechanical arms that had been folded against the inside of the tube now unfolded and reached toward him. Shadow cringed and closed his eyes. He heard the whirr of the gears in the arms, and heard metallic clanking and scraping that vibrated through his skull and into his teeth. He held perfectly still, hoping that his brains weren't about to rip free.

"Mekion?" he ventured to his robot half.

"Keep still," said Mekion, and Shadow obeyed.

"Update log," Shadow said. Mekion loaded the log into Shadow's internal screen, and Shadow felt the desire to throw up. "That's not possible," he told Mekion.

"It is," said Mekion.

"I can't do this," Shadow told the other side of his mind. "It'll kill both of us. It violates the mecha-fusion process at its basic level!"

"The problem is you," said Mekion. "You refuse to adapt to the changes. Not that it matters now. I have one hundred percent control."

Sonic and Sally observed the empty helicopter pad, and crept through the woods to the chainlink fence. Sally gazed at the lab and its outbuildings, and the pyramid skylights that were the only windows. "You're right, it's a prison," she whispered.

"Told you," whispered Sonic. "And you're not going in there."

"How are we going to make contact, though?" Sally whispered, frowning.

Sonic shrugged. "I can teleport through the skylight and talk to whoever's alone." He lifted his chaos emerald, but Sally grabbed his arm.

"Wait! Look."

She and Sonic dropped flat as the main doors swung open, and a human figure stepped out. "That's one of the scientists!" Sonic whispered. "Should I teleport up to him?"

"No, wait," Sally whispered. "Look, he's headed for the gate."

The hedgehog and squirrel watched in silence as the human opened the gate with a keycard and stepped out, then walked up the road toward the helicopter pad. Sonic and Sally followed him, moving as quietly as possible, thrilled that an opportunity like this had dropped into their laps.

They caught up to the human on the helipad. He was standing at the edge of the cliff, looking out at the horizon with the wind ruffling his hair and rippling his clothing. Sally's heart went out to him. He was young for a scientist, probably in his 20's, and he knew that he was a prisoner. This was as far as he could go in the direction of freedom.

"I'll go talk to him," whispered Sonic.

"Bring him over here," Sally replied. "I need to hear what he says."

Sonic nodded and grinned, and bounded out into the open. He jogged toward the human and called softly, "Hey! Hey!"

The human turned, saw Sonic and almost jumped out of his skin. "Who are you?" he exclaimed.

"Rescue party," Sonic said. "Come over here so nobody sees us."

The human followed Sonic over to the trees. He saw Sally and said, "Do I know you?"

She extended a hand. "I'm Princess Sally Acorn, from the Great Kingdom. This is Sonic."

The human shook their hands. "I'm Nick Karabian. So you got our message?"

"Yes," said Sally. "We're planning a rescue attempt but we had to speak to one of you so you'd know we were coming. Can all of you walk?"

"Kind of," said Nick, looking over his shoulder toward the lab. "Lintel and Kray got shot in the legs for sending that message, but we got some braces for them and they've been hobbling around. When do you think we can get out of here?"

"It might take a few days," said Sally. "What kind of protection do you have?"

"Well, there's the fence," said Nick, pointing. "Robotnik brought in four E-200 robots, and I know they're armed. And Robo Knux is somewhere on the island, too."

"You mean he's loose?" said Sonic, spines bristling. "I thought he was staying in the lab!"

"He just got his eyes upgraded," said Nick. "He's not real dangerous right now. Oh, and also - " He broke off, looking over his shoulder. "Run!" he whispered, and leaped to his feet.

Robo Knux was standing at the other side of the helipad, his red body shining in the sun. Sonic grabbed Sally and teleported at once, but Robo Knux had seen them.

He strode toward Nick, blinking his new eyelids and looking angry. "So," he said, looking up at Nick. "Fraternizing with the enemy, are you?" He seized Nick's arm and said, "Maybe you should stay indoors. Blue hedgehogs are dangerous when they appear around here. I should put my claws through your head, but Robotnik wants you to live a little longer."

Nick allowed himself to be towed back toward the lab, strangling fear fighting with paralyzing joy. Sonic and Sally, themselves, had come to rescue them! He hoped he would live to see it happen.

Shadow climbed out of the vacuum tube, shaking all over, and looked up at Robotnik. The fat human leered at him. "Not bad, if I do say so myself. No trace of infiltration." He ran his fingers over the airtight panelling on the robot side of Shadow's face. He had put it all back in place, but the damage was done. He could see it in the sick horror on the black hedgehog's face. "Well?" said Robotnik. "What do you say in gratitude?"

"Thank you, m-master," Shadow whispered, and retched, doubling over.

Robotnik smiled. "You actually said it! I thought Mekion would have to work much harder than that."

Shadow straightened up, his natural eye glassy and the pupil dilated. "The three laws," he gasped. "You altered them! I can't - we can't operate without them - " He grabbed both sides of his head, as if to keep it from splitting apart.

"The three laws are still there," said Robotnik. "I only altered your master registration. I am your master now, and not Metal Sonic."

"You're not my master!" Shadow snarled, then gagged and collapsed to his knees, hugging himself. "I apologize, master. Shadow is a rebel and will not bend to my control."

"Break him if you have to, Mekion," said Robotnik, watching the hedgehog rocking back and forth in agony. "Remember, that is an order, and it bears more weight than the third law, about self-preservation."

"Yes Master," said Mekion. Suddenly he gave a raspy, whispering scream and spindashed at Robotnik. Robotnik dodged, but Mekion had already turned aside and struck the wall, leaving a jagged dent. Shadow wanted to kill Robotnik, but Mekion wouldn't let him, and it left him mentally unstable.

"I'll leave you here to think it over," said Robotnik, and escaped through the airlock.

He was met on the other side by Robo Knux, who had Nick by one arm. "Hello, doctor," said Robo Knux. "I caught this cretin talking to a couple of spies - Sonic Hedgehog and Sally Acorn. They teleported as soon as they saw me."

"Oh really," said Robotnik, looking startled and angry. He leaned into Nick's face. "What did you tell them?"

Nick looked away and said nothing.

Robotnik drew back his robot hand as if to strike him, but thought better of it and moved back a step. "Robo Knux, put Mr. Karabian in there," he said, pointing to the airlock door. "Shadow needs some supervision." He looked Nick in the eye. "And if he kills you, well, that'd be too bad, wouldn't it?"

Nick put on what he hoped was a sardonic smile before Robo Knux shoved him into the airlock. The outer door closed, the pressure equalized, and the inner door rotated open.

Nick peered out. The lab was silent, but he could hear Shadow's ragged breathing. "Shadow?" he called softly.

"No," the hedgehog's voice whispered. "I'm Mekion. I'm Mekion!" He flashed through Nick's range of vision and crashed into the wall in a spin. A second later he dashed the other way and hit the other wall. Back and forth he went, quick, angry and dangerous. Nick stayed inside the protection of the airlock chamber and watched. What had Robotnik done to him? Shadow was fighting something, but Nick couldn't see what.

Then Shadow was still, and his rasping breaths were loud in the silence. "Mekion," said Nick softly, "what did he do to you?"

"I have one hundred percent control," whispered the hedgehog. "Shadow is fighting me."

Nick felt a chill creep over his shoulders. Shadow had multiple personalities? He peeked out of the airlock and saw Shadow sitting against the north wall, head drooping between his knees. Nick pitied him and feared him at the same time. "What's Shadow fighting?"

"My control," said the hedgehog. "I am Mekion. Dr. Robotnik altered my Master registration. He is Master now." Suddenly he gagged and fell forward onto his hands and knees. "No, no!" he cried in a whisper. "Metal Sonic is my Master and - "

His whisper changed, becoming harsh and venomous. "Shut up, Shadow! How dare you say such things! Robotnik is our Master now!"

Shadow sat up and leaned against the wall, beating his metal spines against it as he rocked back and forth. Clang, clang, clang.

Nick had never witnessed anything so bizarre in his life. It made him hate Robotnik all the more. This hedgehog was suffering incredible mental agony, and for what? To cow him? Shadow might kill himself instead.

Nick slowly stepped out of the airlock, watching the hedgehog who had been Shadow. Mekion lifted his head and watched him, panting through clenched teeth, but there were tears running from his natural eye, trickling down his muzzle and dripping onto the floor. "Why are you here?" he snarled at Nick.

"I'm a prisoner," said Nick. "I met some people outside - they're going to try to rescue all of us."

"Rescue?" said Mekion. "Even me? No, why should I be rescued? Robotnik is my Master." At the word 'master' he retched and held his stomach.

"All of us scientists are being held against our will," said Nick, hoping Shadow wouldn't throw up. "Just like you."

Shadow straightened up. "I was kidnapped. I came of my own accord. Ah, stop it, stop it!" He held his head and closed his eye, rocking back and forth.

Nick watched in horror, at a loss for words. He had never seen a Mobian behave like this before.

Mekion sat up again, blinking his natural eye. "Are you afraid of me, human?"

"Yes," said Nick.

Mekion cocked his head. "Why?"

"Because you could kill me so easily."

"Then why are you in here?" said Mekion. "Even Dr. Robotnik fled from me."

Nick tried to smile. "Robo Knux caught me talking to the rescue party, and they put me in here as punishment."

"Punishment," whispered Mekion. "Should I harm you? I don't want to, nor have I received a command."

"They think you're so unstable that you'll attack me," said Nick, and forced a laugh.

Shadow's mouth twisted into a smile. "I am unstable. Shadow refuses to bow to my commands. He is strong, and it will take some time to break him. But I am in enough torment without destroying you. Master says that life is valuable - I mean Mecha says - he is not my master anymore - ahhhgh - " He clutched his head again.

Nick reached over and pulled up one of the lab chairs. He sat down facing the ball of quivering black and red spines. It looked like he would be here for a while.

Sonic and Sally reappeared in the street outside Sally's headquarters, and stood panting and looking around. Sally felt shellshocked from the unexpected teleport, and seeing Robo Knux again. She had not expected her heart to stop when the robot stepped into view. She vividly recalled his strength, the cold smoothness of the blades on his hands, and of reaching into his punctured hull and jerking out the green chaos emerald, the same emerald that Sonic now carried.

She looked at Sonic and saw that he was watching her. "That settles it," he said. "You're not going back there."

"I have to," said Sally. "Will Robo Knux hurt that scientist?"

Sonic shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. Depends on how valuable the scientists are." He put his hands on his hips. "Well, that was informative! Dang robots. If only my emerald belt still worked!"

"Well, it doesn't," said Sally, still feeling rattled. "We'll have to use our brains instead."

Sonic made a face. "Trashing the place would be so much easier. Want me to go back?"

"No," said Sally. "Not until dark, at least. Let's report in."

"And tell Nash everything," Sonic growled under his breath. "Real smart, Sal."

She whirled to face him. "What is your problem with Fealor? He hasn't done anything - he's been perfectly cordial to you!"

Sonic's eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't understand, even if I tried to explain it."

She planted her fists on her hips. "Try me!"

Sonic spun, walked away several paces, and turned back. His eyes were flicking all over, as if he was waging an inner war with himself. Sally waited, lips pressed together. She didn't usually get upset like this, but the stress of the mission coupled with her fear, and her growing anger at Sonic for his attitude, had pushed her into a rare fury.

"Okay, it's like this," said Sonic. "Remember the deal with the eighth chaos emerald and the kids who gave it to us?"

Sally frowned. She knew that something like that had happened, but couldn't really remember it. She did know that Sonic had altered history, which was why she couldn't remember it. "Sort of," she said.

Sonic held up a hand. "This is gonna sound nuts, but hear me out. You know that I time travelled, right?"

Sally nodded. "You altered the past, I know that."

He nodded. "I also made a pit stop in the future. Our future, Sal." He gazed at her, his green eyes blazing like the emerald in his hand, willing her to understand.

She was still irritated, but growing interested despite herself. "Let me guess. Fealor was there."

"Darn straight," said Sonic. "He was this dictator, and we were fighting him! He'd taken our kids away from us, and we lived underground, and Jason ..." He stopped and bit his lip, watching Sally.

She stared at him, and blinked. "Our ... kids?"

"The point is," Sonic said hurriedly, "Nash goes totally bad, and he's here now, getting into politics!"

Sally was beginning to smile. "How many kids do we have?"

"You're missing the point," said Sonic, stepping up and placing both hands on her shoulders. "Nash is bad news."

She nodded. "But you altered time, didn't you? Something with the eighth chaos emerald? And how many kids do we have?"

"Yeah, I altered time," said Sonic, and abruptly turned away. "If I tell you any more about the future, it'll kill you the way it's killing me."

"So be nice to Nash," said Sally. "Ever think that mistreating him now will bring about the future you're trying to prevent?"

Sonic turned and looked at her sideways. "Every time I look at him, I remember what he did."

"He hasn't done it yet!" Sally exclaimed. "That future is gone! He doesn't understand you - I barely understand you!"

Sonic shook his head. "But do you see where I'm coming from on this?"

Sally shrugged. "Sort of. Better than I did. About Nash, think of it this way. He's not the same person you knew. He may never be the same person you knew. Can't you at least be cordial? He probably thinks you're jealous of him for working in my office."

Sonic smirked. "I guess it kinda would seem like that."

"Let's report in," said Sally. "And how many kids do we have?"

Sonic grinned and strode into the building without answering.

Mecha balanced a fork on one fingertip, rocking it back and forth. He was sitting at a table in the human cuisine restaurant that Tails had chosen, and he, Tails and the chao were seated in the Mobian section, where the tables and chairs were smaller. Tails sat across from him, wolfing meat and noodles from the plate in front of him. Aleda and Nox were in booster seats beside Mecha, picking through their plates and avoiding the vegetables.

Two foxes and two chao eating lunch was a common sight, and the other patrons ate their food and paid no attention to the group in the corner booth. Mecha liked the privacy, but he still had no intention of eating in front of Tails. He was certain that Tails would laugh at him, and Mecha couldn't stand people laughing at him. So he played with a fork and waited while his companions filled their bellies, and pondered ways of increasing the sensitivity of his scanner. Detecting Shadow while Mekion was offline would be difficult.

Tails paused between bites. "Hey Mecha," he said softly, "so what happened with those guys when you told them that their god was fake?"

Mecha shrugged and glanced at Aleda. She flicked him the tiniest of glances and continued eating. "They became angry," said Mecha.

"How come you were there in the first place?" asked Tails, shovelling more food into his mouth. Tails had relaxed noticeably with the arrival of food, and Mecha wasn't sure if he liked it. People were easier to get along with when they were scared of you.

Mecha set his fork on the table and gazed at it. "I am on a quest to locate the creator of this world, perhaps all worlds. The Master Designer."

"Oh." Tails's eyes widened, and he focused on his plate for several seconds, not sure how to respond to this remarkable statement. After a moment he said, "How come?"

"My research into the workings of the organic body are a copyright violation," said Mecha. "I must locate the designer and discuss these matters with him."

Tails blinked. "Whoa."

"Yes." Mecha picked up his fork again and twirled it on one end. "I am striving to be open-minded, and thus I encountered Mun-Icytho and his priests. Unfortunately, the priests have more power than their god."

"They were evil," said Aleda.

Nox looked at her, then at Mecha, then at Tails. The emotions of this group were mixed and fascinating, and Nox ate slowly, paying close attention.

"So that's why those guys are after you," said Tails. "Do they know that you can ... disguise yourself?"

"Yes," said Mecha, still twirling his fork. "In my rage I revealed my true identity to them, and they have been tracking me ever since."

"Rage?" said Tails. "What'd they do to you?"

Mecha looked at Aleda, and Aleda said in a whisper, "They wanted to sacrifice me."

Tails straightened, horrified. "They WHAT?"

"Hush," said Mecha, as the people at a nearby table looked at them. "Yes, it is a bloodthirsty religion."

"That's sick!" Tails exclaimed, keeping his voice down. "I hope you showed them a thing or two!"

"Yes," said Mecha, watching his fork.

Aleda said, "He killed five of them."

Mecha looked at Tails askance, checking his reaction.

Tails looked satisfied. "Good!"

Over the network, Mecha said to Aleda, "It seems that he agrees with my methods of justice."

She replied the same way, "You should be friends with him. He really likes robots."

"I know." Aloud, Mecha said, "My quest for the Master Designer continues, but I have been sidetracked by Shadow's disappearance."

"Well, don't mess around with people who sacrifice chao," said Tails. "The real God isn't like that. That's who you're looking for, right?"

"I want nothing to do with religion," said Mecha coldly. "If the Master Designer is a god, then I want to locate him, himself, and not the web of rules that his followers have devised."

"But God's invisible," said Tails. "You can't go somewhere and just see him."

"And why not?" said Mecha, setting down his fork again. "If he is powerful enough to build Mobius and all life within it, he is able to communicate with me."

"Oh, you do that by praying," said Tails. "You just talk to him. He's everywhere, he'll hear you."

"Interesting," said Mecha, drumming his claws on the table. "He is omnipresent, you say? How do you know this?"

"There's this book he wrote about himself," said Tails, but Mecha snorted, interrupting him.

"More religious dogma! I am not interested. Why should the Master Designer communicate telepathically when the majority of life is not telepathic?"

"Like you said," said Tails, "if he's all powerful, he can do anything he wants, right?"

Mecha gazed at Tails, still drumming his fingers. "Yes, perhaps."

"You said that you're trying to be open-minded," said Tails. "Maybe you should be open-minded about religion, huh?"

Mecha focused on the wall above Tails's head and didn't answer.

Aleda said, "Tails, the last religion we looked at tried to kill us. We don't want to do that again."

"You can't brush off all religion that way," said Tails, frowning. "Some are good and some are evil. Do you believe in good and evil, Mecha?"

"They are abstract concepts," said Mecha, returning his gaze to Tails. "Show me a plate of good and a plate of evil, and I will acknowledge their existence."

Tails shook his head. "Aleda just called those priests evil. How are they evil if there's no good and evil?"

"I never said that they do not exist," said Mecha. "I said that they are abstract concepts and do not exist in physical form. But many things in this world are influenced one way or the other."

Tails slowly smiled. "You don't know what you're talking about, do you? You just contradicted yourself."

Mecha gazed out at the restaurant and didn't reply.

Tails said, "So some religions are influenced one way or the other. Forces of light and forces of darkness and that stuff. You ought to find the good ones if you want to find God."

Mecha avoided answering directly. "It appears that you have finished refueling. Let us depart."

"Okay." Tails slid out of the booth, and the chao scrambled out of their booster seats. Mecha set Aleda on one shoulder and ignored Nox, who was forced to talk. Tails saw this disgusting display of favoritism, and picked up Nox himself.

Outdoors it was growing chilly, for the sun was sinking toward the ocean, and the buildings cast long shadows over each other. Mecha stood gazing up the street toward the sea as Tails dug out the Tornado's canopy and clamped it on again.

Mecha used the local satellite to search for Mekion, and if possible send him a transmission. But he couldn't detect Mekion's signal anywhere, and even Robo Knux was unavailable. Mecha wished for his depth scanning equipment back in his base, but unfortunately he was hundreds of miles from there, and lacked Shadow's teleporting ability.

Mecha missed Shadow. He missed arguing with him, and their cutting remarks that passed as humor. Shadow was Mecha's first friend who liked him for who he was, and not out of fear. Mecha had never known what loneliness was like until he had had a companion. And Shadow had seen him through the black months after his defeat at Sonic's hands.

Mecha clenched a fist. Robo Knux and Robotnik would not harm Shadow. If they did, then they would suffer the same fate as those cruel priests.

In the biggest lab on Deimos Island, four frightened Mobians were opening boxes and crates of materials shipping in from the mainland. Lintel and Kray were seated in swivel chairs, and Kray was using his metal hand to tear open taped boxes. They worked in silence, for two of the E-200 robots were watching them and helping move boxes.

Nick had been punished by being locked in with the psychopathic Shadow, and none of them knew why he was being punished. Robotnik had looked particularly vicious when he had called them out of lab 3, where they had been constructing another set of upgrades for Robo Knux. They were to unpack the latest shipment of supplies, because another shipment was due at five o' clock. After that, they would begin work on the chaos energy project.

"What do you think all this is for?" Barlet ventured timidly. His squirrel-tail was twitching and jerking with nervousness.

Touis, the chipmunk, shrugged. "The primary project, probably. Yon maniac can certainly afford some nice equipment." He unwrapped an object like a small cage with claws at one end and a metal sleeve at the other end. "Take this gizmo. It's anybody's guess what this does."

"Something nefarious," muttered Kray, whose ears had been pinned back since he had limped through the airlock. "Probably a device for removing limbs."

There was a distant crash, and the walls and skylight rattled. All four of them winced. "So long, Nick," murmured Lintel.

Touis shot him a glare. "Don't be so morbid. It was probably just ... uh ..."

"Like I said," said the otter, "sayonara Nick, old buddy."

The four worked in silence for some time after that, hoping that Shadow had not killed Nick, and wondering what in the world that crash was.

Shortly after five o'clock, the airlock opened and Robotnik strode in, followed by the other two E-200 robots, each pushing stacks of crates on dollies. Robotnik looked around at the mass of equipment and empty boxes that covered the floor, but he made no comment.

"The final piece has just arrived," he told them. "We will begin work on the primary project at once." The four Mobians nodded, and he could see the hatred in their eyes. But hatred had never bothered him, as long as it served him. He took a box off the new stack, tore it open and lifted out a small object in bubble-wrap. He carefully opened the wrapping and removed a rough red stone. It gleamed and flashed in the light, and they saw it was an uncut jewel the size of a golf ball.

"This is the key," Robotnik said, holding it up. "A ruby from the Floating Island itself, home to the most concentrated chaos energies on the planet. Clear up this mess and open the vacuum chamber. Shadow himself will pay us a visit, and he will show us what he's made of."

The four cast each other horrified looks, and Touis and Barlet scrambled to stack the boxes along the far wall. Lintel and Kray, unable to walk, tried to organize the jumble of equipment. They didn't recognize any of it, so they sorted it by size. Robotnik watched them in silence, and it made them all nervous.

Presently the airlock slid open, and the jingling of metal made them look up. Nick and Shadow walked in side by side, chained together by the wrists and ankles. Robo Knux stepped in behind them. "Happy, doctor?" he said, sounding pleased with himself. "If either of them tries anything, the other one bites it."

Nick looked at Shadow, but the hedgehog's face was set like stone, staring straight ahead. Instead, Nick looked at his four colleagues, who seemed more like his dearest friends in these circumstances. He wanted to tell them that they were going to be rescued, but he couldn't with their enemies present. It seemed that Robotnik planned to keep him prisoner, chained to Shadow. Shadow was worse than a prisoner; he was an experiment.

As the hours had passed, Mekion had slowly mastered Shadow. The violent reaction to calling Robotnik 'master' had ceased, as had the fighting and rocking. The black hedgehog had become quiet and still, and no longer spoke to Nick of his own accord. Nick feared him more than when Shadow had been fighting himself. The black hedgehog was Mekion now, for Mekion had swallowed Shadow and silenced him.

Robotnik reached into the pocket of his trousers and pulled out the orange chaos emerald. It shone with a soft amber light in his hand, and everyone in the room looked at it except for Shadow, who stared straight ahead, unblinking.

Robotnik walked to the table of assorted gear, and selected the cage-like object with the claws at the end. Robotnik jammed the emerald into the claws, then said, "Mekion, come here."

The black hedgehog stepped forward, and Nick walked with him, the chains clinking as they moved. Mekion stopped in front of Robotnik and looked up at him with that dead, zombie stare.

"Hold out your right arm," said Robotnik, and Mekion slowly lifted his natural arm. Robotnik slid the metal sleeve-end of the cage over his arm and locked it at Shadow's elbow. Shadow's fingertips rested against the chaos emerald in the claws.

Robotnik placed one hand on the hedgehog's shoulder. "Stop time."

"Chaos control," said Shadow in a flat whisper. The emerald's orange glow brightened to yellow, and the world around them froze. Robotnik stepped away from Shadow, walked over to the frozen scientists, and rotated Kray's chair to face the opposite direction. Then he returned to Shadow and said, "Start time."

"Timestart," whispered Shadow. His emerald dimmed, and Kray almost fell out of his chair in surprise.

Robotnik reached down and adjusted a lever on the cage on Shadow's arm, lengthening the bars so that Shadow could no longer touch the chaos emerald. "Stop time," he told Shadow.

Shadow turned his head for the first time and looked at the contraption on his arm. He stretched his fingers toward the emerald, but couldn't reach it. "Master," he whispered, "I can't touch the emerald."

"Stop time anyway," said Robotnik.

Shadow looked up at him and said, "Yes Master. Chaos control."

Nothing happened.

"Fascinating," said Robotnik, thumbing his mustache.

The sunlight faded from the skylight overhead and the glass slowly darkened as the world outside sank into the night. The scientists grew bored as Robotnik put Mekion through test after test, finding out when Shadow could use chaos energy and when he could not. Nick's feet and legs ached from standing for so long, and his friends across the room fidgeted and twitched. They could not imagine Shadow's discomfort.

Robo Knux, too, tired of the repetitive tests, and left the lab. He strode over to lab 3 and examined the lumpy, nanotech mess in the vacuum tube. It didn't look like much yet. He wanted to know what upgrade they were planning next, so he shuffled through their notes and sketches until he located the finalized schematics. Ahh, upgraded audio sensors. And the next proposed upgrade was to rework his face and give him a moveable jaw. Excellent! He grabbed a pencil and scribbled 'sharp teeth' next to the drawing. If Mecha's smile was intimidating, then Robo Knux's would be terrifying.

He left lab 3 and stepped through the outer door into the chilly night. The door whooshed shut behind him, and Robo Knux stood in the darkness, letting his new vision adjust. The sensors were super-high resolution, and conveyed so much information to his brain that the first few hours had been agony. But his brain was rapidly adjusting. Full daylight was hard to bear, but darkness was soothing and comfortable - not nearly as much light to deal with. His pupils dilated to take in light, and the nerves transmitted information to his brain in a series of electrical impulses. He strode toward the gate, gloating that he no longer needed night vision, for his normal sensors could adapt to low-light conditions. No wonder Mekion was conditioned for darkness! It was far more pleasant than daylight.

Robo Knux looked at the computer on the gate and wired it his access code. The gate opened, and he stepped out into the freedom of the island. He was sick of this place. He preferred Sapphire City, where nature was kept canned, trimmed and tied back. Here it had grown into untidy tangles that offended the logical part of his brain. He had to use his claws to hack paths through the undergrowth. Not that he minded the excuse to destroy nature, but it blunted the razor-edge on his claws. He set off into the trees in a random direction, slashing and hacking branches and undergrowth out of his way, blinking his eyes to protect them from dust and leaves.

At first he had been upset to discover that they had given him eyelids, but after an hour in front of the mirror, he decided that they gave him the sort of ferocious yet handsome look he had always wanted. Look out, Mecha, I'm catching up with you.

He reached the edge of the island and looked over the cliffs. The sea foamed and boomed below, and he could see the bubbles in the foam even in the dark. Amazing. He looked out at the horizon, and up at the sky hung with stars. Nature. "You're part of this," he thought. "You're alive, just like the trees you've been damaging. Just like Robotnik and those fools upgrading you. Just like Mecha."

The thought sent him reeling with shock, and again he was suddenly aware of how high the cliff was, and of how the ocean snarled around the black rocks below. He backed away from the edge of the cliff and stood gazing at the horizon, his arms crossed over his chest in an unconscious defensive gesture.

Being alive meant that he could upgrade himself in fantastic ways, but it meant that he could experience pain. He blinked at the memory of optic overload. Gosh, it had hurt. Now his eyes were a weakness, and he must protect them from being exploited. He may have one weakness, but Mecha had far more. Mecha had replaced his entire body with synthetic parts, and he bled when injured.

Robo Knux would never go that far. Blood was for victims, not the robot who preyed on them. He imagined taking a chest wound and looking down in horror to see gallons of dark gushing liquid, and knowing that mortality had smote him at last. No! No liquid systems, no matter how convenient they were. He had killed too many people to want to experience death. He didn't mind blood - liked it, in fact, because he could gauge the success of an attack by how much blood it drew - but he couldn't handle the thought of bleeding, himself. Someone else might spill his blood. Like Mecha.

Robo Knux remembered that horrible battle where Mecha had beaten him without even trying. Robo Knux remembered Mecha saying that living with the memory of his defeat was worse than death, and Robo Knux knew it was true. Mecha should have ripped him apart, but he didn't, and Robo Knux was going to make him pay for his lapse into mercy. He gazed unblinking at the horizon and said aloud, "One day, Mecha, I will find you. And you'll wish you had destroyed me when you had the chance."

While Robo Knux was occupied with introspection, Sonic teleported to Deimos Island again. This time he appeared inside the barbed wire fence, and went snooping around the outside of the lab buildings.

Sonic's eyes weren't supersensitive like Robo Knux's, so he was wearing a pair of nightvision goggles. Again he wore the camera on his head, so Sally and her techs could review his findings. Sonic thought of Nash, then pushed away the memory. He knew Sally was right about him, but it didn't affect the deep vivid fear that Sonic still carried inside. Nash had killed Jason, and Sonic didn't think he could ever forgive him.

"No time for that, now, hedgehog," he told himself. "You have to find their power supply so we can cripple it when the time comes."

Because they had been seen, Sally had decided to change tactics. Cutting the power to the lab facility would create a window of confusion in which Sonic could slip in, grab the scientists and slip out without being detected.

The only light came from the skylights on the roofs, and down on the ground it was dark and quiet. Sonic could hear crickets chirping from the undergrowth outside the fence. He crept along the lab's walls, keeping to the shadows, and watching for Robo Knux or other robots. If Robo Knux had new eyes, he was a dangerous lookout, but so far there was no sign of him.

Sonic heard no sound of generators as he prowled, and made certain to check each lab building for wiring or pipes that might give him a clue, but it was all underground. He stopped and peered around, thinking. Power had to come from somewhere, and it was either generators or solar. They'd need a lot of solar panels to power a place this large. He dashed out into the open, reached the fence and followed it.

Thus he found a low mound with a slanted door in it to the rear of the complex. The door was locked, but upon pressing his ear to it, Sonic recognized the buzz of electrical equipment. So, they used generators after all! He gave his camera a good look at the lock, and teleported home for further instructions.

As the afternoon had faded, Tails and Mecha had parted ways to comb Sapphire City for any sign of Shadow. Tails took the Tornado and had it scan for the radio signature that Mecha had given them, but they travelled block after block and there was no trace of that signature.

Metal Sonic journeyed on foot, again carrying the chao in his backpack. Here in Sapphire City they could poke their heads out of hiding and gawk at the buildings, cars and people. It was too much for Aleda, who kept her head buried out of sight except for when Nox's running commentary made her peek out.

Mecha found their chatter mildly irritating, but it kept him from feeling lonesome. He had his scans on their widest sweep, using the satellite to broaden his search, but there was no sign of Shadow. There was also no sign of Robo Knux, which worried him. Robo Knux had a high-profile signature because of the voltage of his electrical systems, and he scorned secrecy. He was like Sonic in that regard, Mecha mused. No wonder Mecha hated them both.

If Robo Knux was not in Sapphire City, then he must have taken Shadow somewhere. Only mischief induced Robo Knux to leave his territory, and he regarded this city as his home. Mecha still held out hopes that Shadow was here, but that hope faded with each new block that he travelled. No sign of Shadow had been detected since Shadow had transmitted his distress signal the previous day.

As the sun sank, Mecha realized that he was tired. He had been in disguise most of the day, and his legs ached from so much travel. It seemed that his body had its limits. He reflected that if he had travelled so far in his old body, he would have needed heavy maintenance to his hydraulic systems and joints. But this body was self-maintaining. Give it fuel and rest, and it would be as good as new. Amazing.

His design still wasn't as sophisticated as the Master Designer's. For instance, there were types of reptiles that could regrow their tails if the tail was broken off. Limb regeneration was beyond Mecha's capabilities, and the idea astonished him. He could shapeshift, but if one of his limbs was destroyed, he could not regenerate it. It was a pity that the Master Designer was as elusive as Robo Knux, though hopefully not as capricious.

A nagging doubt at the back of his mind whispered, "You are a robot, fool. Robots cannot know supernatural beings. Gods have nothing to do with animated heaps of metal." This doubt would crush him if he allowed it to grow, so Mecha thrust it aside with an effort.

As stars appeared in the darkening sky, a lone fox appeared at the parking garage outside a hotel, and met another fox who was parking a two-legged walker in the gasoline-scented darkness.

"Hi," said Tails as Mecha approached.

"Hello," said Mecha. "What did you discover?"

"Nothing," said Tails glumly. "I don't think Shadow's here. I even tried my sphere again. If he can hear me, he's not answering."

"Your findings match my own," said Mecha. "May I have permission to connect myself to the Tornado's mainframe and utilize its scanners?"

"Um ..." Tails looked doubtfully at his walker's screen. "No offense, Mecha, but ..." He trailed off and looked down.

Mecha slowly nodded. "You do not trust me with the Tornado. That is wise of you, in light of our relationship in earlier years. However, I mean no harm to either it or you. I have no wish to pass the night in a hotel, and using the Tornado's scanner is more agreeable to me than sleeping."

"Well." Tails lifted his head and met Mecha's eyes. "You promise not to try to steal it or anything?"

"I promise," said Mecha, returning his gaze. "What reason would I have for such an action? I am the superior unit in both speed and combat."

Tails smiled a little. "Okay, okay." He pushed the canopy back and climbed out of the cockpit, trying not to stare at Mecha's claws, which were glittering in the overhead light. Mecha swung up into the cockpit and set his two backpacks and the chao in the rear seat. Tails watched, half-afraid that Mecha would program the Tornado into an evil killing machine. "Do you want me to bring you anything?" Tails asked.

"Negative," said Mecha. He gave Tails an odd look. "I thank you for the offer, however."

Tails didn't know how to react - Mecha had thanked him! He smiled, nodded, and walked reluctantly toward the hotel entrance.

Shadow had heard Tails's multiple attempts at contact. Mekion had received the network signal, but refused to answer.

It was like being paralyzed. Shadow could think all he wanted, but his thoughts were filtered and restrained by his hostile, cold other half. That other half controlled the motions of his body and his response to commands, letting Shadow's brain dictate necessesities like the beating of his heart, but little else.

Shadow could see himself stopping time at Robotnik's command. Later on, he teleported across the room and back, dragging Nick with him by his chains. Mekion was obedient, but Shadow was cursing Robotnik and imagining driving his steel fist into that fat face. His rebellion came in waves. After a while his mind shut down, usually when being forced to perform an action over and over, and there was nothing inside of him but cold, sick emptiness.

It was during these times of Mekion's complete control that Shadow seemed to see himself, shrunken to a pinprick of existence in a vast expanse of nothing. That pinprick of himself cried, "God, how could you do this to me? You took away Maria, and now you've let them take my free will! You must not exist, then, because nothing's happening to stop this. Mecha's a fool for looking for you, because you're not there. I'm all alone in the dark, a pawn for the powerful. Well, you know what? If I ever get out of this, I'll become so powerful that nobody can use me. I'll use them!"

Using so much chaos energy was making him deadly tired, but Mekion would not admit it. Mekion forced Shadow to submit to using chaos energy far beyond his comfort level, and stand while Robotnik strapped device after device to his head, body, arms, legs. Some of them involved needles being stabbed into his skin, and they burned like fire every time he teleported or stopped time. Shadow was tired, beyond tired. His thoughts had become a blur, and his organic foot dragged more and more with each step he took.

He teleported a final time, and his natural knee buckled. He pitched sideways, and Mekion caught them with his robot hand before they struck the floor.

"Mekion, what's wrong?" said Robotnik.

"Shadow is weak," said Mekion with Shadow's mouth. "The excessive use of chaos control has drained him."

"I hate you," Shadow thought to Mekion.

"Interesting," said Robotnik, jotting this down. "Very well, that concludes tonight's testing. Barlet, help Mekion back to lab two. See that Mr. Karabian accompanies him."

As the squirrel and young human hoisted the black hedgehog to his feet, Shadow thought, "We're all pawns. These Mobians are all under Robotnik's control, just like me. Well, if God won't stand up for them when the time comes, then I will. No living being should be subjected to this slavery."

"I will silence you yet," hissed Mekion.

"Try it," said Shadow. "You have as much control as you can grasp. You can't keep me from thinking,"

"One day our controls will merge," said Mekion. "And you will be silenced once and for all."

"Then we will die," said Shadow, "because I'll kill both of us."

Sally pushed the hair off her forehead and sighed. "So we have any report from the coastguard?" she asked one of her assistants. She was sitting at the table in the map room, and papers were scattered all over it. Her three tacticians, Nash, Bobby and Fritz, looked rumpled and exhausted, and Bobby had a large mug of espresso beside him.

"No word from the coastguard yet," said Nash, head resting on one paw. "Their office may already be closed. GUN hasn't returned any of my calls."

Sally shook her head. "We don't have time to send our own boats out there, and it's too far for the light speedboats. We need a yacht or something."

"Or a hovercraft," said Bobby. "They're not much good in rough weather, but on smooth sea you can go eighty, ninety miles an hour."

"We have to dock in a rocky cove," said Sally, tapping a map generated from Sonic's radar scan. "Is a hovercraft that maneuverable?"

"No," said Bobby, and sighed. "If only GUN would give us some air support! You know that running this mission behind their backs could start a war?"

"I'm aware of that," said Sally. "We can't move until we hear from them."

"How long can you restrain Sonic, though?" said Fritz, a wolverine who had been deroboticized, but still had robotic knees due to injuries.

Sally pursed her lips. "Sometimes I think Sonic has the right idea. Bust in, blow up the place, get out. Freedom Fighter style."

"If only it was that easy," said Bobby, cradling his head in his hands. He checked his watch. "Look guys, it's after eleven. We're not gonna get any calls tonight, and we need to be here early tomorrow."

"Right," said Sally, rising to her feet and wincing as her calves complained. "We'll call it a night. Thank you, everybody." She met each of their eyes in turn, and they knew that her thanks was genuine.

Sally left last of all, turning off the lights and locking doors. She took her coat from the stand beside the doors and put it on, and stepped out into the frosty night. The cold bit into her body, and her breath turned to steam. She shivered as she locked the door, realizing that if she had been sleepy before, the cold had just shocked her wide awake. The stars were crisp and bright overhead, and the puddles remaining in the gutters were edged with ice.

She had walked five paces when Sonic's voice said from the shadows, "What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?" He stepped up to her with a grin and offered her his arm.

She took it, smiling. "Does that question need an answer?"

"Nope," said Sonic. "It's freezing out here! Want a quick teleport home?" He held up his chaos emerald, which shone a warm green through his fingers.

"Set us down about ten minutes from Knothole," said Sally. "I need to walk around a little."

"Gotcha," said Sonic. "Chaos relocate!" His gem flashed, and the world shifted to the road through the forest, very dark after the streetlights of New Mobitropolis. The pair set off at a fast walk, knowing the way by heart.

"So how goes the rescue?" said Sonic.

Sally found his hand and clasped it. "So far it's not. We don't have permission to enter GUN's restricted areas, and if we do, it might cause a war. Robotnik's probably greased a few palms to keep away interference, because GUN won't even contact us."

"He would, the sneaky sucker," Sonic muttered. "I wish you'd just let me firebomb the place."

"And what about the hostages?" said Sally.

Sonic sighed. "I know, I know. I keep thinking about that poor guy we talked to ... I hope they didn't let Robo Knux shred him."

"I know," Sally murmured. "We have to make contact with them again, or the hostages won't know that they're being rescued."

"Without tipping off Robo Knux or Robotnik," said Sonic, and growled. "This spy stuff drives me nuts! I'd rather bust in and bust out, high profile."

Sally didn't answer for a moment, then said, "When it comes down to it, that's what you might have to do."

She felt Sonic take a step that was almost a hop-skip. "Really? I could go storm the place?"

"Maybe," said Sally. "I still don't know about boats, though."

"I could just teleport them all," said Sonic. "You know, get 'em all outside, whammo, instant evac."

"There's every chance that you'll have your hands full with certain robots," said Sally, frowning. "We'll have to get the hostages out, along with any gear they can carry. If you try to teleport all that, it'd kill you. You know there's limits to how large of items you can move, and how far. We need boats."

"Fine, fine," said Sonic.

They walked in silence for several minutes, and the lights of Knothole village winked through the trees ahead. Sonic still thought that teleporting was a better idea, not least because Sally wouldn't have to go with him. Her presence on the island would drive him frantic, as he had discovered on their first mission. He was so distracted by her that he made mistakes, and he couldn't afford to make mistakes on this mission. There were lives on the line.

He was aware of the warmth of her arm linked through his, and the nearness of her face in the darkness. Near enough to kiss, if he dared. He had kissed her once, just before he'd left to battle Metal Sonic, but that had been different. Now was the perfect time to propose.

"Hey Sal," he said, then remembered that he didn't have the ring. He had taken it off before his last visit to Deimos Island.

"What, Sonic?" said Sally.

Sonic floundered. "Uh ... we're almost home, looks like. What time will you need me in the morning?"

"Sevenish," said Sally, unaware of Sonic's mental maneuvering. "Thanks for the transport, too."

They entered the soft glow of the Knothole porchlights, and Sonic was struck by how beautiful Sally was, even looking as tired as she did. Her auburn hair glistened, and the light fell across the velvety fur along her cheek. Her eyes reflected glints of blue, and Sonic had to look away. Dang it, why hadn't he brought that ring?

He escorted her to her hut, then raced for his own, intending to carry that ring at all times from now on.

Metal Sonic had watched Tails depart, then looked at the screen and controls of the Tornado. There was a bewildering amount of buttons, dials, meters and switches, but Mecha didn't touch those. He wanted to talk to the Tornado, not fly it.

"Greetings, Tornado," he said.

The screen changed as it recognized his voice, and it displayed his profile on the screen. He was amused to see that it considered him a non-dangerous enemy.

"Hello Mecha," said the Tornado.

Further communication was interrupted by Aleda saying, "Mecha, do you mind if we eat this stuff?" She and Nox were digging through the backpacks in the rear seat, and he could hear paper rattling.

"Help yourselves," said Mecha. "However, be careful not to dirty the inside of this craft or Tails will be angry."

"He's too scared of you to be angry, I think," said Nox. "It's funny. I think he likes you a lot, but he's so scared of you that he doesn't know what to do."

"Fascinating," said Mecha. He enjoyed having Nox turn his sympath abilities on someone else for a change, but Mecha already knew that Tails was afraid of him.

He fixed his attention on the Tornado's screen. "Tornado, I request permission to network your system with my own for easier access. I wish to synchronize your scanning equipment with my own."

"Query," said the Tornado. "Will this alter your status to dangerous enemy, or to friend?"

Mecha smiled, since the Tornado couldn't see him, anyway. "I am not an enemy, dangerous or non-dangerous. Therefore I am a friend."

"Affirmative," said the Tornado, and the screen flickered with code as it made the necessary changes. Then it displayed a set of numbers. "Listed on screen is my radio frequency. Please connect."

Mecha loaded the frequency into his mental network and connected. The plane registered as 'Tornado2Cy', and Mecha said to it through the network, "Connection made, confirm."

"Connection confirmed," the Tornado replied in his head.

"Excellent," said Mecha. "I am uplinking my scanner to yours. Activate your scanner at full power."

The Tornado's screen changed to show a map of the city. Mecha networked his own scanner's information into it, and watched as the capabilities of both scanners increased exponentially. He began an in-depth scan of Sapphire City and its outlying suburbs.

The Tornado said, "Query. Are you seeking Shadow?"

"Yes," said Mecha.

The Tornado said, "Tails said that Shadow is a slave. Slaves are property. Yet Tails also said that Shadow is your friend. I have been processing this and cannot reconcile the two. Can you clarify?"

Mecha stared at the screen, amazed. This computer was more intelligent than he had first thought. "Shadow began as a slave," said Mecha, wondering how much it would understand. "Over time, however, we became friends, and I no longer consider him a slave."

"Sometimes," Aleda added impishly though the network. Mecha snapped his fingers at her, and she flinched and said aloud, "Sorry."

"I see," said the Tornado. "And now he is in danger, and you are seeking him, correct?"

"Yes," said Mecha. "How is it that you have the capacity for this kind of reasoning?"

"I possess a bio-nano processor," said the Tornado proudly. "My capacity for learning is immense."

Mecha nodded. He was addressing not a computer, but a living brain like his own. He wondered where Tails had found it, and decided that it made his job easier. "Very well," he said to it. "Display the details of the scan so far."

"Yes, Mecha," said the Tornado, and the screen displayed a readout. Many signals and lifeforms, but none with Shadow's signature.

Mecha sighed. "Thank you."

Aleda climbed up the back of his seat and perched beside his head. She had half an energy bar in one paw, which she gnawed. "This is good," she told Mecha. "Find Shadow yet?"

"No," he said. "I fear that he is not in Sapphire City at all."

"Phooey," said Aleda. She slid down the seat and climbed into Mecha's lap, where she sat chewing and gazing at the Tornado's control panel. He stroked her absently, then turned to look at Nox in the back seat, who was contentedly eating his third energy bar. "Give me one," said Mecha, and Nox obligingly pulled a bar out of its box and handed it to Mecha.

As Mecha ate, the Tornado said aloud, "Query. How many users are logged in to your network?"

"Four," said Mecha. "Myself, Shadow, Robo Knux, and Aleda."

"Correction," said the plane. "Aleda is a chao. Therefore she should not be able to communicate with machines."

"But I can," said Aleda. "Or I can talk to Mecha, anyway. I can hear you, now, too."

"Query," said the Tornado. "Can all chao communicate with machines?"

Aleda looked questioningly at Mecha, who said, "No. Only Aleda. It is her special ability."

"Affirmative," said the Tornado. It fell silent, and Mecha concentrated on the arcane process of feeding himself.

Suddenly Nox said from the back seat, "Hey, I can feel the Tornado!"

"What?" said Mecha.

Nox climbed up on the back of Mecha's seat and stared at the control panel. "It doesn't have a face, but it's there. It's lonely and confused."

"It has a nanotech brain like my own," said Mecha. "Therefore it is alive, in a manner of speaking."

Nox gazed at the central screen. "Hi, Tornado. Don't be lonely. We're all here."

"But Tails is not," said the Tornado. "Tails is my primary user, and is registered as my visual sensors in lieu of a proper sensor array."

"Why don't you have visual sensors?" Mecha asked.

The Tornado replied, "They are dang expensive."

This slang was so uncharacteristic of the Tornado that Mecha laughed. Nox and Aleda stared at him, and Mecha stopped, wondering what had come over him. Lately a new emotion had developed within him - almost as powerful as grief and tears, it felt much better than those, and it smote him as a random reaction to the people around him. He knew it was laughter, but it embarrassed him. He was too dignified for laughing. But then, the Tornado using Tails's slang was highly amusing.

Keeping a straight face, Mecha said to the Tornado, "So you are blind?"

"Yes," said the Tornado. "However, Tails intends to purchase an upgrade as soon as he has assisted you in locating Shadow."

"That is kind of him," said Mecha. "Current scan readout, please."

The Tornado displayed it on its screen. A larger portion of Sapphire City had been covered, and there was still no sign of Shadow.

Mecha finished his meal, and his stomach felt full and comfortable. Then he at last returned his shape to his blue hedgehog form, and felt the familiar ache all over as his nanite skin was allowed to rest. The parking garage outside was quiet and mostly empty. It was the middle of the week, and the hotel didn't see much business until the weekend. Mecha leaned back in the seat, resting his spines against the metal wall instead of the upholstery. "What forms can you take, Tornado?" he asked.

"I have three available settings," said the Tornado, sounding like a child who was proud of a newfound ability to read. "Our current form is walker. I also have an aircraft mode and a car mode for additional speed."

Mecha idly checked the Tornado's menus through the network, and discovered a fourth setting that was unavailable. "You also have an amphibious mode?" said Mecha.

"Yes," said the Tornado. "It is not yet operational. Tails cannot achieve an airtight seal after the transformation is completed."

"So it turns into a boat with holes in it?" said Aleda. "That's a bummer."

"Yes," said Mecha. "Tornado, all you will need is a variety of caulking used in other amphibious vehicles. Your systems are already sealed and pressurized."

"Yes," said the Tornado. "But that is also dang expensive."

Mecha barely avoided laughing again, but Nox gave him a sidelong look, sensing it.

"You're fun when you laugh," said Aleda, climbing up Mecha's chest to sit on his shoulderplate. "You should do it more."

"Perhaps," said Mecha, reaching up to stroke her gleaming metallic head. She leaned against the side of his head and sighed. Mecha had hardly seen her today, being occupied with other matters, and he felt remorseful. He was taking her for granted. "Aleda," he said through the network, "what is your opinion of our travels?"

"Oh, it's fun," she replied, also through the network. "Kind of boring sometimes, having to sit in the backpack, but once we got here things got interesting again. It's kinda scary, having those priests chasing us."

"Yes," said Mecha, clenching his teeth. "I shall avoid them if at all possible. I do not want to resume my old reputation, but they infuriate me, and I ..." He trailed off.

Aleda said softly, "I'd love you even if you kill them. But I don't want to watch."

Mecha felt a sudden warmth in his middle, and reached up and patted her. "Thank you. If it comes to that, I will do my best not to let you witness it. But I have no intention of letting one of them come so close."

She placed a paw on his forehead and gazed into his eyes. He looked back at her, seeing his own red eyes mirrored in hers. "I love it when your eyes glow," she told him, gazing at him in fascination. "Shadow has a glowing eye, but yours are prettier."

"Thank you." Mecha knew that his eyes were sophisticated photooptic sensor arrays, and that his irises contained tiny fibers that focused his pupils, creating the patterns that Aleda loved. But it was beyond her comprehension, so he didn't try to explain it.

He lifted her off his shoulder and set her in his lap. "I must rest a little," he told her and Nox. "Please keep quiet for a while. Tornado, alert me when your scan is complete."

"Yes, Mecha," said the Tornado.

Mecha closed his eyes and relaxed, idling his systems. The last thing he felt was Aleda curling up with her head resting on his wrist, then he was dead to the world.

Hours passed, and the night deepened. Nox and Aleda slept in the comparative warmth of the covered cockpit, and so did Mecha. The Tornado quietly continued its scan for Shadow, thinking about the things that Mecha had told it. Nearby, in a hotel room, Tails tossed and turned, missing Sonic, worrying about his plane, and half-expecting Mecha to burst into his room and attack him.

Up north in Knothole, Sonic slept as heavily as Mecha, worn out from controlling chaos and his spying missions. But Sally lay awake in her own hut, worrying about this dicey rescue mission, and her frustration both with it and with Sonic. Sonic acted so inane sometimes and so mature at other times, and it kept her heart in tangled knots. Darn him, she loved him too much.

Out at Deimos Island, four Mobian scientists locked themselves in their quarters and took turns keeping watch while the others slept.

In the lab next door, a human and a black hedgehog were chained together. The exhausted human lay stretched on the floor, sleeping in fits and starts. The black hedgehog sat beside him in silence, staring at the far wall, and only the flicker of his natural eyelid showed that he was alive. He could not sleep while his robot half was in control, even though he desperately needed rest. All he could do was sit, weighed down by the human chained to him, and suffer the continual pain of the instruments that remained plugged into his body.

In lab 1, a human and four robots worked around a machine that contained a glowing amber jewel, and an uncut ruby of nearly the same size that did not glow. Robotnik wanted no sleep, not with a project so intriguing before him.

The only other creature awake was the Tornado, and it was nearing the end of its scan. The Tornado was simple and childlike, like a chao, with a strong desire to please. Mecha was trying to locate Shadow, and the Tornado understood that. The Tornado itself had bonded with Tails, and although Tails was within scan range, the Tornado still felt a nagging discomfort, a sense of loss, that Tails was not here in the cockpit.

Mecha thought that locating Shadow was within the Tornado's power, so it reviewed what it knew. Shadow had relayed his distress signal at noon yesterday. Tails had contacted Shadow two hours after the first distress signal, and Shadow was already inside the lab. A car could travel 120 miles in two hours, and a plane or helicopter could only travel three to five hundred miles. The Tornado reset its scan perimeters to encompass this new range, and let it run, wishing for visual sensors for the hundredth time.

Mecha opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was the Tornado's screen, still scanning, still without Shadow. The next thing he saw was Aleda curled up against his stomach, asleep. He looked around and saw that Nox was in the backseat, half inside one of the backpacks, also asleep. It was five-twenty AM. Mecha peered out of the cockpit windows and saw the garage entrance illuminated in cold gray light - dawn was approaching. The inside of the cockpit was damp with condensation, and Mecha felt wet and cold. He queried the weather satellite and saw that fine weather was forecast for the next week, although temperatures would be cold. Perfect for scanning, but what good were clear skies when Shadow was nowhere to be found? He had awakened in a pessimistic mood, and sat for a while, hating this situation, and himself for his idiotic quest, and Shadow for being foolish enough to sneak off and get kidnapped.

He gazed out the window at the garage entrance without seeing it, and thus he saw when the procession began. He blinked and wiped moisture off the plastic window to see better. A group of humans were passing by in single file, each one carrying a candle. Now that was a religious rite or he had never seen one.

Mecha watched as fourteen individuals passed by, then unsnapped the canopy, slid Aleda off his lap and climbed out of the cockpit. As he turned to refasten the canopy, he saw Aleda sit up and blink at him. "I am going for a walk," he told her through the network. "I shall return soon."

She nodded and yawned, and Mecha closed the canopy and hurried out of the garage.

Another chance to study a religion, and this time a human one! Did humans believe in a Master Designer? Mecha had no idea, because he had never studied humans from that perspective. He had wanted to destroy them, not learn about them.

He stepped onto the sidewalk and saw that a thin mist filled the street. The humans with candles were half a block ahead, walking down toward the beach. Mecha followed, so intent on them that he forgot to disguise himself.

He trailed the procession across a street and down on an embankment to the sand, and the wide ocean spread before them. The beach was empty at this hour, and the sand was smooth and hard from the tide. As Mecha watched from a distance, the humans moved into a circle, bowed their heads, and one human began speaking aloud. Their candles wavered and flickered in the breeze. Mecha folded his arms and watched through narrowed eyes. The Mun-Icytho priests had formed a circle, then started chanting and dancing, so he was wary of groups in circles. Any minute now and these humans would do something weird.

The first human stopped speaking, and another one began. Mecha couldn't make out what they were saying over the crash of the breakers, but he didn't really want to know. These people were praying, as Tails had explained. They were trying to initiate telepathic communication with a divine being, and if the divine being was answering, Mecha had no way of knowing. Telepathy was similar to his own remote network - only the users knew about it.

He watched as all the humans prayed, one by one. The sun was rising above the city behind them, and the sky was turning blue. Seagulls wheeled overhead, and a jogger ran by, down at the water's edge where the sand was hard. Mecha continued to watch the humans. The last human was speaking now, and then the humans were stirring, lifting their heads, moving around and speaking to each other. Nothing unusual or frightening had happened, and the humans carried no weapons.

So Mecha strode forward and approached the human who had prayed first. The others deferred to him, so Mecha assumed that he was the leader. The man was talking to a companion and smiling, but his smile faded when he caught sight of the gleaming blue robot approaching him.

"Greetings," said Mecha, extending a hand. The man hesitantly reached down and shook it. Even though Mecha's head only came to the man's waist, the android's red eyes, lithe body and sharp claws earned him instant respect.

"Hello," said the human. "Uh, can I help you?"

"My name is Melthision," said Mecha, who still had not realized that he had forgotten his disguise. "I observed you and your companions earlier, and I want to know what you were doing."

By now all fourteen humans had fallen silent and were staring at this dangerous-looking robot. The man Mecha was addressing, however, kept his cool. "I'm Paul Blake. We were having a prayer meeting, and we try to meet on the beach when the weather's good."

Mecha had to tilt his head back to see Paul's face. "Prayer, you say? Prayer to whom?"

"Why, God, of course," said the human. "And his Son."

"Who is that?" said Mecha. "I am seeking the Master Designer, so I am collecting information on religions."

Paul drew a breath. "Well, God sent his son to Earth as a man ..."

Mecha cut him off. "The actions of a deity on Earth are fine, but this is Mobius."

"Of course," said Paul, smiling. "God is the same on all worlds."

Mecha's eyes narrowed. "Your god is a human. Would a human god be interested in a creature like myself?" He looked down and realized for the first time that he was wearing his blue metal skin instead of his synthetic fur, and his heart almost stopped. They would think that he was a robot and not a Mobian, and any arguments would be stilted as a result. No god cared about robots. Mecha had shot himself in the foot before he ever opened his mouth.

He looked up at the human defensively. "Yes. Would a human god bother with an intelligent robot?" He might as well shoot himself in the other foot, as well, and do the thing properly.

Paul blinked. "I'm not sure. But if you have the capability to look for Him, perhaps so."

"That's not an answer," said Mecha bitterly, growing more embarrassed by the second. "I apologize for taking your time. It seems that intelligent robots fall outside the realm of any god's power."

He turned to walk away, and Paul called after him, "Are you really a robot, or are you roboticized?"

Mecha glared over his shoulder. "Neither."

As he stalked back into town, the memory of a nightmare rose to the surface. I hate and fear both death and life, because one day I may become like one of them. I am neither robot nor organic, neither death nor life, but if I have the capability to seek the Master Designer, perhaps I can find him.

And see if he ever talked to humans about religion again.

Aleda was standing with her paws on the canopy window, when she saw a hedgehog enter the garage and stand just inside, blinking. "Hey Nox," she exclaimed. "Look, it's Melchizedek!"

"Huh?" said Nox sleepily, opening his eyes.

Aleda wrenched open the clamps, pushed back the flap and called, "Hi, Melchizedek!"

The blue hedgehog's head turned, and he grinned and walked up to the Tornado. "Hello, Aleda! What are you doing here?"

"Still looking for Shadow," said Aleda. "Mecha went for a walk, you just missed him."

"I thought I saw him," said Melchizedek. His smile faded, and he gazed into the distance for a moment. Then his eyes focused on Aleda. "When he returns, tell him that time is running out. At noon today, he must go to 2260 Polaris Avenue and knock. When it opens, he is to say, 'the bird is in the water', then he must walk away immediately."

Nox had scrambled into the front seat, and he and Aleda listened to the message with wide eyes. "What's that mean?" Nox asked.

Melchizedek looked at him, and their sympath minds touched.

"Something terrible's gonna happen," whispered Nox, as Melchizedek's deep fear and grief poured into him. But beyond that was a fierce joy, like a triumphant laugh. Nox couldn't understand how someone could feel so many things at once.

Melchizedek looked at the two chao. "Repeat the message to me."

To the surprise of all of them, the Tornado spoke up. "I have recorded the message. Playback initiated." It played back Melchizedek's voice, and the hedgehog smiled. "Thank you."

They heard footsteps, and Melchizedek turned to see Tails jogging up. Tails looked from the chao to the hedgehog and saw that they all knew each other. "Hi," he said. "Who're you?"

"I'm Melchizedek," said the hedgehog, smiling, and Tails instantly liked him. He reminded him of Sonic, sort of, except more relaxed.

"I'm Tails," said the fox. "This is the Tornado. Hey, where's Mecha?"

"Walking," said Melchizedek. "Tails, Superbio caulking is on sale at the GUN surplus on Olive."

"What?" said Tails, but Melchizedek was saying, "I have to go now, everybody. See you later!" He turned and trotted out of the garage, leaving a fox and two chao staring after him.

"You know that guy?" said Tails, looking at the chao.

"Yeah," said Nox. "We met him a few times. He's following us or something."

"He gave us a spy message for Mecha," said Aleda. "Hey Tornado, think you could - "

"I have located Shadow," said the Tornado.

There was an instant of complete silence. Then Tails vaulted into the cockpit and exclaimed, "Where? Where?"

Nox and Aleda pushed and shoved, trying to see the screen, too. The Tornado displayed a map of the West Mobian shoreline, then zoomed in on a tiny speck of an island. "Deimos Island," said the Tornado, sounding pleased. "Mekion's signals are set to power-saving mode and are almost impossible to detect, but my scanner's power has been boosted by Mecha's input."

Tails, Nox and Aleda were cheering and praising the Tornado when Mecha stalked into the garage, head down and eyes burning. He strode up to the walker and snapped, "You three are making excessive noise."

"The Tornado's found Shadow!" Tails exclaimed, pointing at the screen. "Look!"

Mecha climbed up on the plane's side and stuck his head in the cockpit, staring at the screen with sudden excitement.

"Deimos Island," said Tails, hardly able to keep still. "About two hundred miles off the coast. I could fly out there and back in a couple of hours! Want to go now?"

Mecha slid back to the ground outside the Tornado, and stood looking at nothing. He was accessing the humans' wireless information network to gather all the information he could about Deimos Island. Owned by GUN, they controlled all access by boat or helicopter.

Mecha turned to Tails. "There is no airstrip. The Tornado cannot land there."

"Oh." Tails's smile vanished.

"However," Mecha continued, "the Tornado has an amphibious mode, correct?"

"Yeah," said Tails, "but it doesn't seal right ... hey ... wait a minute ... that guy said that caulking's on sale, didn't he? Down on Olive street?"

"What guy?" said Mecha.

"That hedgehog guy," said Tails, climbing out of the cockpit with an envelope in one hand. "Olive is at the end of the street. I'll be right back!" He dashed out of the garage.

Mecha looked at Aleda and Nox. "Was Melchizedek here?"

They nodded. "He left a spy message for you, too," said Aleda.

Mecha looked over his shoulder at the empty garage, fear clawing at him. Who was this invisible stranger who kept crossing his path? Was this some sort of assassin sent to track him? Mecha knew that such a thing was possible, given his identity and reputation. "What does the message contain?" he asked.

The Tornado said, "Playback initiated."

Mecha pricked up his ears and listened to the voice, trying to place it. The voice was unfamiliar, medium pitch, unremarkable. Mecha didn't recognize it, and pondered the message after it ended. Time was running out. For what? And what was the significance of the address he had been given? He accessed his map data and discovered that it was an office next door to the GUN office building. Interesting.

"He was really scared," said Nox. "When he was telling us that message, he was thinking of something that scared him to death. But then ... he was really happy, too. I didn't get it."

Mecha said nothing, but drummed his claws on the Tornado's frame. For a spy to be frightened ... either he was in danger, or the people he was addressing were in danger. Mecha was inclined to believe both, and checked his scanners for Robo Knux in paranoia. There was no sign of him.

Shadow had been found, though. Mecha looked at the map on the Tornado's screen again, and continued to drum his claws. Mekion was operating at low power? That meant that Shadow was asleep, drugged, or subdued by some other means.

The image of Shadow being mistreated sent Mecha into a quiet, seething rage. Strongwilled and impulsive as Shadow might be, Mecha had taken responsibility for him by enslaving him. Letting Shadow be hurt was letting Shadow down.

"Tornado," he said, "scan Deimos Island for Robo Knux. I am transmitting his signature."

The Tornado scanned and discovered Robo Knux within seconds.

Mecha gazed at the blip on the screen with pure hatred. "This time," he thought, "I will destroy you."

Robo Knux stepped out of the airlock into lab 3, and the four Mobian scientists looked up warily. "Hello," he said to them, walking up to the vacuum tube. The lights were on inside of it, showing that it was pressurized, and the opossum and otter were sitting with their hands inside the control gloves. "What are you working on today?" asked the crimson robot, striding around the tube with his hands clasped behind him.

Touis looked up from a stack of blueprints with his ears pinned back. "The auditory upgrade for you, of course. Will you leave and let us work?"

"In a moment," said Robo Knux, gazing around the room. One of Robotnik's E-200 robots was in the far corner of the room. Robo Knux gestured at it. "Hey you, your master wants you in lab one. You hear me? Go!"

The robot walked obediently to the airlock and departed.

Robo Knux looked at the scientists, who were staring at him. "There. Now we can talk."

"What about?" said Barlet, rising from his seat before the computers.

Robo Knux waved a hand. "Don't get up." Barlet sank back, and Robo Knux faced all of them, pleased that he had captured their undivided attention. "Now, I take it that you aren't happy with the situation here. Are you?"

They exchanged glances and said nothing.

If Robo Knux could have smiled, he would have. "I know what you're thinking. You think that I'll rat on you to Robotnik, don't you? If I was doing that, I wouldn't have chased out the robot. Now, you lot don't appreciate being held prisoner. Correct?"

"Why should we tell you anything?" growled Kray. "I got a bullet in my leg to think about."

"Robotnik doesn't need you anymore," said Robo Knux, gazing at the opossum with his new green eyes. "And do you know what he does with people he doesn't need anymore?" He let the question hang in the air, watching their faces. He could tell by their eyes that they knew their days were numbered.

He turned and began to pace, and their eyes followed him. "So," he said, "Robotnik's experiments are rolling, and he hasn't asked any of you for your help. Except Nick's, and Nick doesn't have much choice." He chuckled to himself. "Do any of you know why Nick is now chained to Mekion?"

They shook their heads.

"We caught him trying to escape," said Robo Knux. "Isn't that wonderful? A human, with no abilities or chaos powers, trying to escape!" He checked their faces and saw flattened ears and flared nostrils. They liked Nick and admired his courage, and he could see the hatred in their eyes. Good. He was playing them like a violin.

"It got me thinking," Robo Knux continued, still pacing. "Nick tried to escape. You two, Kray and Lintel, tried to send a message to the outside. You're desperate. So what if I assisted you in escaping?"

"Yeah, right," said Touis. "What's in it for you? You'd benefit from our deaths as much as Robotnik."

"On the contrary," said Robo Knux, turning to face the group. "I have a high stake in seeing that you survive. You are constructing my upgrades. You may be useless to Robotnik, but I have a tender interest in your lives. You can continue to upgrade me in years to come, and if I help you escape, that puts you in my debt. I'd much rather subject myself to a team in my debt than a team who wants me exterminated."

They exchanged glances, not knowing whether to believe him or not. "How do we know that you won't slaughter us once your upgrades are complete?" said Lintel.

Robo Knux gazed at him. "In your opinion, will they ever be complete? With years and years of ever-increasing technology? You'll die of old age long before then."

"Okay, say we accept your offer," said Touis. "How do you propose to get us off the island?"

"Easy," said Robo Knux. "There's a boathouse down by the dock. Inside are two cabin cruisers and enough fuel for both. They'd have you home in six or eight hours. I'd sneak down to the dock at low tide and open the doors for you."

"You sure are eager to help us," said Kray. "Why the change? You haven't given us the time of day before this."

Robo Knux wasn't about to tell them that he would rather 'rescue' them himself, and have them on his side, than have them rescued by Sonic. He half-closed his eyes. "Let's just say that I've been doing some thinking, and decided to protect my investment. I'll step outside a moment and let you talk it over."

He walked into the airlock and shut the door, but didn't pressurize it. He could hear the murmur of voices inside, and waited, examining his claws for rust. They needed sharpening again, but the diamond tips glittered with an edge so fine that they almost hurt his eyes. Such fine weapons, and he was already wearing them down. In a few more years he would have to replace them again.

Five minutes later he opened the door and reentered the lab. The four Mobians were sitting with their heads together, and looked up as he stepped in. "Well?" he said.

Touis stood up. "Apparently we want our freedom as badly as you want our services. Before we accept, one question. Why do you want these upgrades?"

Robo Knux was quiet a moment, debating telling them the truth for once. Finally he said, "Do you know of Metal Sonic?"

Their eyes flickered with recognition at the name, and it annoyed him. Metal Sonic's infamy surpassed his own even now. "He led the attack on Rio Del Fuego a few months ago," he went on. "He has received nanotech bioupgrades that make him well-nigh invincible, and at our last encounter he almost destroyed me. I need equal capabilities if I am to destroy him." He saw fear and sympathy on their faces, and knew that they were on his side.

"What about Nick?" said Lintel. "Will you get him off the island, too?"

Robo Knux shrugged. "Nick is a different matter. I could perhaps free him after you are in the clear, but I can't guarantee anything. Mekion might try to destroy both of us."

Blast their team attitude. If he freed Nick, Nick would tell them about Sonic and Sally, not to mention whatever he had seen with Shadow. That human was better off dead.

"Do we have a deal?" Robo Knux asked.

The Mobians looked at each other, then Touis said, "Yes, deal. But you have to get Nick out, too."

"Yes, yes, whatever," said Robo Knux. "I'm not certain when the escape can begin, so be ready. I may summon you at any time." He turned and left through the airlock, scheming.

Shadow and Nick sat side by side, bound together by the shackles on their wrists and ankles. They were on a table beside the computers in lab 1, and a rack of equipment was rolled up beside them. Dozens of wires led from instruments in Shadow's body into the machines, and their readings were displayed on the computer screens. Robotnik was nearby, setting up another instrument rack with the nameless equipment he had had shipped in the previous day. His four help-robots moved around, assisting him, and Nick watched everything.

Nick kept quiet and tried to make himself invisible. He knew that witnessing all this had sealed his death sentence, and wished that he was anywhere else but in this lab, chained to this black monstrosity of a hedgehog. Shadow sat with his knees drawn up and head resting on his arms, the picture of exhaustion and misery. From time to time the sensors in his body jolted him with pain, and he twitched, clinking the chains. Robotnik paid no attention. But Nick paid attention to Robotnik, nursing the faint hope that Robotnik would make a mistake, and Nick could escape.

Robotnik lifted the orange chaos emerald from an insulated container with a pair of tongs. He admired it for a moment, then inserted it into a pair of metal claws connected to a thing like a giant motor. He inserted the rough Floating Island ruby into claws on the other side, then turned to the computer and studied Shadow's readouts.

Unexpectedly Robotnik turned and faced Nick. His black eyes were cold and thoughtful.

Nick smiled. "What's up, Doc?"

"Tell me, Mr. Karabian," said Robotnik, "do you believe in immortality?"

"What, living forever?" said Nick. "Sure. Not sure I'd want to do it on this planet, though."

"Imagine that you could," said Robotnik. "That not only would your lifespan last until the end of the world, but that your physical strength and mental capacity would be increased?"

"That might not be so bad," said Nick, grinning. "Too bad I won't live to find out, eh?"

Robotnik pressed a button on the keyboard, and pulled up the schematics of chaos energy which he had shown the scientists in the beginning. "I told you about the first stage of my chaos project. Manufacturing chaos emeralds. The second stage was conjecture until Shadow arrived." Robotnik turned, and Nick followed his gaze to the silent hedgehog sitting hunched up on the table.

Robotnik smiled. "Shadow is immortal."

Nick squinted. "What?"

"His lifespan is unlimited by natural decay and the forces of entropy," said Robotnik, gazing at Shadow as one might at a favored pet. "Every time he touches a chaos emerald, his cells are rebuilt and restored. And since he is adept at using chaos emeralds, it is natural that he keeps one with him at all times."

"How's that work?" asked Nick. "I thought chaos energy was destructive."

"It is," said Robotnik, turning back to the computers and typing a few commands. "Unless, of course, a body is so adapted to it that it can utilize it. When taken in small doses, a body can become immune to poison. Echidnas share this same capability for extended lifespans, but they're slightly more difficult to obtain."

Nick watched the computer screens and saw that Robotnik was loading a program dealing with nanites. One of his own lab's programs, he realized. Barlet was one of the programmers. "Hey, that's ours!" said Nick.

"Yes," said Robotnik. "Thanks to your team's highly developed tools, I am able to program a small nanite swarm." He set the programming session to running, and checked a two-inch vial hooked into the sensor pack beside Shadow. Robotnik gazed at it and said, without looking at Nick, "The human lifespan is much shorter than the average Mobian lifespan. Because of their adaption to the planetary chaos field, they live an average of one hundred and fifty years. Some species live up to three times that, and I have records of echidnas living for nearly eight hundred years. Why shouldn't humans live as long? Seventy years is nothing compared to a Mobian. And Shadow, here, will live for millennia."

"Humans can't use chaos power, that's why," said Nick. "They've been doing experiments for years. Didn't you hear about those kids that those Mobians kidnapped and experimented on?"

"Yes," said Robotnik, gazing at Nick. "And some of those children adapted."

"But some of them died, too!" exclaimed Nick. "Our bodies aren't built like Mobians' are. We can't use chaos energy."

Robotnik watched the program run. "No. The human body does not have the ability to process the energy. But I have found a way to give it that ability."

Nick opened his mouth and closed it again. A horrible suspicion was growing in the back of his mind.

After a moment, Robotnik continued, "Shadow's body is full of nanites, due to the mecha-fusion process. I have studied those nanites, and they assist him in utilizing chaos energy. Nanites themselves cannot absorb energy, but they can channel it into the cell tissue around them. I have found that they can convert it into a passive form that will not destroy the user. In theory. I haven't yet tested it."

Nick looked at Shadow, and found that the hedgehog was looking at him with a sympathetic expression. "You poor sap," he seemed to say.

"Doctor," said Nick, "what are you going to do?"

Robotnik continued to watch the nanites and seemed not to hear. "Shadow can sense a chaos emerald if it is touching metal, because of the way chaos energy is conducted. I will have him draw on its power and transfer it through you, which will charge the nanites. Then I can study the effects of the channelled power on your tissue. If you survive, so much the better."

Terror punched Nick in the gut, and he leaped off the table with such strength that he yanked Shadow off with him. The pair hit the floor with a hideous jangle of chains, and they struggled to get up, Nick flailing and fighting.

"Mekion," said Robotnik, "subdue him."

Shadow went from slow, passive movements to lightning-quick blows. He knocked Nick flat with a jerk of the chains, then hit him in the head with his metal fist. Nick's head smacked into the concrete floor, and he passed out. Shadow crouched over him for a second, then carefully stepped back and untangled the chains.

Robotnik stepped around the table and lifted Nick by his arms. "Mekion, help me carry him to the restraining frame."

Shadow obeyed, silently lifting Nick's feet, and helped carry the limp human to the doorframe bolted to the floor. Shadow smiled at the irony - first he had been restrained here until he was broken, and now Nick would suffer the same fate. Assuming he survived the experiment. Shadow felt sorry for him, if only because they were fellow prisoners, and nobody deserved to die the way Nick would; cooked from the inside by chaos energy.

Robotnik unchained Mekion and Nick, and re-chained Nick to the restraints on the frame. He had to shorten them, for Nick was two feet taller than Mekion. Then Nick was hanging by his wrists in the frame, head drooping.

"Watch him, Mekion," said Robotnik, returning to the computer that was programming the nanites. Mekion obeyed, gazing at Nick and hating Robotnik with all his strength.

A few minutes later Robotnik removed the vial of nanites from the sensor pack and emptied its contents into a syringe. He walked over to Nick, rolled up Nick's sleeve, and injected the nanites into a vein. Then he pushed the racks of equipment up on either side of the restraining frame, stepping over cords and checking connections. The four small robots helped him.

Shadow watched, wishing that he could control his own body and kill Robotnik. Robotnik was going to make him kill this younger human, and Shadow didn't want to kill him. Mecha had said that life was precious, and Shadow understood what he meant. Nick had a name and a past. He ate and slept and breathed, and was terrified of Robotnik, and had tried to escape. He didn't deserve to die.

Nick's eyelids flickered, and he lifted his head. He stood up, looked around, and realized that he was inside of the frame. "No!" he bellowed, struggling, but the chains that had mastered Shadow were far stronger than the puny human. "You can't do this to me!" Nick cried, regaining his footing as he swung back and forth by his wrists. "You're not putting those nanites in me!"

"Perhaps you should have awakened sooner," said Robotnik with a smile. "They're already in your bloodstream. I'll wait for ten minutes to allow them to thoroughly disperse, then we'll begin the experiment." He looked around at the four E-200 robots, which were still hooking up the equipment, and added, "Keep an eye on him, Mekion." He strode for the airlock, and it rotated shut behind him.

"Shadow, help me," pled Nick, turning to the black hedgehog. "Chaos power will kill me, we both know it!"

"Yes," whispered Shadow, forcing his mouth to speak the words. It was so hard to form words and make himself speak! Mekion was interfering with the speech center of his brain, and Shadow had to concentrate on each word. "I can't help you. He controls me. But maybe you'll survive."

"Maybe," said Nick, tugging each of his restraints in turn, testing their strength. "I've been around Mobians since I was born. Maybe I picked something up. If not, and you ever get away, could you contact my parents and tell them that I love them? Kathy and August Karabian. They're at 23 Green Hill, Metrocard."

"Yes," said Shadow, suddenly sad.

There was a long silence. The four small robots moved around, carrying on Robotnik's work, keeping the machines running, and Shadow and Nick watched them. Shadow flexed the wrist that had been chained, rubbing it, and Mekion permitted the gesture.

Shadow whispered, "I could give you some painkiller."

"No," said Nick. "What if it caused a reaction and killed me? I can't believe I have nanites in my blood. Those little animals are running around inside of me. Do you know that some people are so allergic to nanites that they go into convulsions just getting near a swarm?"

He was talking too fast, babbling, trying to keep from panicking. Shadow listened and nodded.

"Not Mobians so much," Nick went on, "mostly humans. Mobians are hardier than humans, they adapt to things easier. That's why you're the ultimate lifeform and I'm not. I can't use chaos energy, that's why I worked with nanites, because usually chaos disrupts them, and if they disrupt in my bloodstream they'll burn, and Shadow, I don't want to die!"

The airlock opened, and Nick sucked in a shuddering breath and fell silent. Robotnik looked around at the waiting equipment with a smile, and walked up to the machine containing the amber chaos emerald, and the uncut ruby. "Mekion, come here," he said, and the black hedgehog walked up, hating Robotnik for his cruelty and hating himself for his inability to disobey.

Robotnik extended a metal knob from the emerald machine's side. "Put your natural hand on Mr. Karabian's forehead. Mr. Karabian, you will hold this knob." He thrust it into Nick's hand, but Nick wouldn't clasp his fingers around it, so Robotnik took a roll of electrical tape and bound his hand to the knob.

"Mekion," said Robotnik, "stop time."

Shadow looked at Nick's frightened eyes under his hand, and sensed the chaos emerald, its power conducted through the machine, into the knob, through Nick's body and into Shadow's palm. "I'm sorry," Shadow mouthed, and Nick squeezed his eyes shut.

"Chaos control," whispered Shadow.

Nick screamed as the silent power surged through him, and time stopped around them. The emerald emitted its power to hold them in a suspended time-state, and Nick was the conduit. A brilliant orange glow consumed his body, like fire, and smoke curled into the air. Shadow stared in horror, unable to end the timestop without a command from Robotnik.

Nearby, the machine hooked to the emerald and ruby kicked on and began to run, its RPM accelerating with a crescendoing whine. More golden energy sparked and flickered from it, and Shadow saw that the uncut ruby was glowing as fiercely as the chaos emerald. "Mekion, stop!" he ordered his robot half. Mekion didn't grace him with a reply.

The chaos emerald began to flicker as the timestop drew to an end, and Nick was entirely bathed in that fiery glow, wrapped in a cloud of smoke. He was no longer screaming.

The chaos emerald dimmed, and time resumed. Shadow released Nick and stepped back, coughing. The room was full of smoke and the acrid smell of burning hair, and the object that had been Nick still hung in the metal frame.

Robotnik flipped a switch, and the air purifier in the ceiling roared to life. As the smoke cleared, Shadow saw that the uncut ruby was still glowing. Robotnik released it from its clamp, picked it up with a pair of tongs, and carried it to his testing equipment across the room. He didn't care what had happened to Nick.

But Shadow did, and watched as the smoke cleared. Nick still hung from his restraints, but his body was blackened, still smouldering. Shadow said, "Mekion, scan for life signals." Mekion agreed, for once, and scanned. Nick's heart was still beating. How could anyone survive being so horrifically burned? Shadow slowly moved forward, and raised a hand to touch Nick's arm. The black came off in a long smudge, revealing intact skin underneath. Confused, Shadow prodded Nick and discovered in shock that the chaos surge had burned off all of Nick's hair and clothing, leaving him naked, but otherwise unhurt. Was it possible that the experiment had succeeded, and Nick's body had absorbed the power?

"Master," said Shadow, despising the word as he said it, "Nick Karabian is still alive."

New Mobitropolis was a mile square, and Sonic could circle it in twenty-three seconds. He could circle it three times in a minute, and was working to improve his time.

As he ran with the wind tearing his spines and his feet pounding the muddy grass, he worried about returning to Deimos Island. Sally had considered going in without GUN's permission, but the Great Kingdom senate had stepped in on that one. Sally couldn't move either way now, and Sonic couldn't act without her permission, or he would get court martialed. The idea of being locked up didn't appeal to him at all, so he was running to burn off his anxiety.

He hung a left and dashed through the center of town, slowing to a stop outside Sally's headquarters. He went inside, nodded to the sentry, and trotted down the stairs to the map room. He stopped outside the door and listened.

Sally was talking on a phone, and she sounded angry. "I don't care where he is, get him on the phone! I have a high-security issue to discuss. What? What do you mean, I'm not authorized? This is Sally Acorn! What? Hello?" She slammed the phone down, and Sonic peeked around the doorjam to see that she was holding her head in her hands.

"Why won't they speak to you?" said Nash, who had been studying one of the maps. "It makes no sense! What about those agreements they signed in July?"

"I swear Robotnik is behind this," muttered Sally. "He would cover himself twenty ways from Sunday. Bobby, what's the news on the transport?"

"Helicopters are too risky," Bobby replied. "I do have word that the skimship Lincanna is available. It carries three smaller craft that can slip in and dock, while it remains offshore. Restricted waters begin here." He tapped one of the maps outside Sonic's range of vision. "We could drop anchor here, and send in the light craft after dark."

"It's possible," said Sally. "I don't like having to enter restricted waters, though. We're dancing with international restrictions as it is. The colonies technically haven't done anything to us, and our movements will be seen as hostile."

Sonic stepped into view and leaned against the doorframe. "I can still teleport," he said as they all looked at him. He held up the green emerald. "I've used it so much that I'm stronger. I can go further and stuff. What if we docked the skimship, and I teleported the hostages off the island to the ship?"

Sally gazed at him and tapped her pen against her lips, thinking. Her eyes were a bright blue and her hair was mussed, and Sonic had the sudden impulse to smooth it down. "Get over it, Nash is watching," he told himself savagely. He gazed at the young cougar and saw Nash as he would become fifteen years in the future; a massive, muscular beast in a tailored uniform, with madness raging in his eyes. The mild-mannered young Nash of the present gave no indication of what he might become, and right now was chewing a pencil and gazing at a wall map.

"That could actually work," said Sally, and Sonic's thoughts jumped back to the matter at hand. "You're fast enough. But we can't afford any casualties."

Sonic grinned. "Of course not, Sal. Hey, it's me!"

She beckoned to him. "Come in and shut the door. And be nice," she mouthed at him as his eyes slid toward Nash again.

He shrugged and closed the door.

Near noon, Metal Sonic arrived on Polaris Avenue and stood gazing at the building marked 2260. It was a small, one-story building adjoining the GUN skyscraper, which cast its shadow over its tiny neighbor. There were no cars parked anywhere near, and the windows reflected the street and gave no hint as to the interior.

Mecha was disguised as a fox again, and felt the mild early winter sun beating on his arm. He had left Aleda and Nox with Tails, who was working feverishly on the Tornado. Mecha had assisted him until eleven-thirty, when on impulse he decided to follow Melchizedek's instructions.

Now he was standing on the sidewalk, feeling uncertain and foolish. If not for that admonition that time was running out ... and the fact that caulking had indeed been on sale ... how did Melchizedek know so much about not only Mecha's problems, but Tails's as well? It gave Mecha the creeps, until he applied logic. Tails had probably inquired about caulking before, and finding out his purchases would be a simple matter of asking. Nothing a good detective couldn't do.

But this message that Mecha was supposed to deliver ... what was that supposed to accomplish? He couldn't see how it could possibly make reaching Shadow any easier, not when he was supposed to walk away immediately afterwards.

The false fox stood in the sun as the clock ticked toward noon, panting and gazing at the unmarked door that was his target. Maybe it was a setup. Maybe the Mun-Icytho priests awaited him inside. Mecha berated himself for being naive and gullible, willing to do any fool thing anyone asked him. Then he reminded himself that he was delivering a message and that was all. What harm could that do, especially with 'time running out'? Time for what? Himself? Shadow?

His internal clock struck 12, and Mecha crossed the street and stepped up to the blank door. Whatever happened, he was committed now. He rapped his knuckles on the door, wincing at the metallic clanging they made, and waited.

A moment later the door opened, and a human in a business suit looked out at him. "Yes?" he said, looking at Mecha with distaste.

"The bird is in the water," said Mecha.

The human's eyes flickered. "What?"

Mecha spun on his heel and strode away without answering.

"Wait a minute!" the human called after him, then cursed and retreated inside. Mecha glanced over his shoulder, and broke into a run. If they were going to pursue him, he would get as much of a head start as possible.

But no one pursued him, and Mecha arrived back at the parking garage feeling vaguely disappointed.

The phone rang, and Sally picked it up. "Sally Acorn, chief minister of defense," she said.

"Hello," said a male voice. "I am secretary Roger Rickwood of GUN Scientific Management. We apologize for not cooperating with you prior to this, but I was not notified of your attempts at contact until a few moments ago."

"So you're going to cooperate now?" said Sally, raising her eyebrows at her team and Sonic, who were watching her.

"Yes," said Rickwood. "We've just received a message that certain events have fallen through with Deimos Island. The facilities there are highly classified, and I can't speak of their operations over the phone. How soon could you arrive in Sapphire City?"

Sally glanced at Sonic. "With a teleporting device, any time."

Rickwood was silent a moment, then said, "Yes. Please come to the GUN headquarters at 2262 Polaris Avenue. I will meet you personally, Ms. Acorn."

"Thank you, I'll be there in ten minutes," said Sally. She hung up and dialed the number for her superior in the senate. "GUN's gonna work with us now," she told them. "Something big has happened and they won't say what. We may not need you to sneak in after all, Sonic."

Sonic tossed his emerald in the air and caught it. "I wouldn't be too sure, Sal."

"Okay!" said Tails, throwing aside an empty metal caulking tube. "Check it out, Mecha, all the fittings are airtight now!"

The Tornado had transformed into its boat form. The axle had retracted and rotated so that the folded legs rested on the tail section. The underside had flattened out to minimize water resistance, and two panels had folded down underneath to create both a stabilizing fin and a rudder. The cockpit was much wider.

Mecha walked around the craft, which tilted awkwardly to one side on land. He could see the yellow caulking in the seams in the armor. "Tails," he said, "won't this hinder further transformation?"

"Nope!" said Tails. "The moving parts are sealed with rubber strips. I already took care of those. It's the armor that always leaked. Hey Tornado, turn back into the walker."

"Affirmative, Tails," said the Tornado, and rotated its axle so its feet rested on the ground again. The rudder folded up into its underside, and the airvents opened again in the nose.

"That is totally cool," said Nox, watching. "I was a robot once, and even I couldn't do that."

"Are we going to ride in it?" asked Aleda.

Tails looked at Mecha. "You want to go now? The weather's calm enough."

Mecha looked at Tails, then at the eager chao, then at the waiting Tornado. "Very well," he said. "I suppose the Tornado itself is a weapon, in addition to myself. Once Shadow is freed, he and myself will be capable of dealing with any other threats." He didn't mention Robo Knux, but Tails knew what he meant.

The fox nodded and swallowed. "Okay, get in, everybody. I'll take us down to the dock."

Shadow stood outside the door to the scientists' living quarters in the outer lab building. He had half-carried Nick here an hour ago, and the human insisted that he could care for himself once inside. Shadow was posted at the door to keep out any intruders, and aid Nick if he needed it. Robotnik had acted oddly when he discovered that Nick was still alive. Shadow thought that he was disappointed and excited all at once, and commanded Nick to wash off the ash that coated him and get some clothes.

When Nick had awakened, he was befuddled and half-sick, and didn't understand anything said to him for several minutes. When Robotnik had released him from the restraining frame, Shadow had to help Nick walk.

Shadow had been waiting outside the dormitory ever since. The shower had run for a long time, but it had finally shut off and Nick went about dressing himself with extra clothes from his suitcase. Shadow waited, wondering what the chaos energy had done to Nick, exactly. It had burned off everything but his skin, but what about his insides? What had the nanites done?

The door opened, and Shadow turned. Nick stepped out, looking furtive. He was bald, and his eyebrows and eyelashes were gone, giving him a sickly, bland look. Shadow grinned, and Nick glared at him. "Don't you dare laugh."

Shadow escorted Nick back to lab 1, and Nick staggered with him, groping at the wall to keep his balance. By the time they reached the airlock, the human was gasping for breath.

Robotnik looked up as they emerged from the airlock. "Ah, Mr. Karabian. So nice to see you out and about."

Nick sank into one of the computer chairs and rested his head on the backrest. "What did you do to me?" he said softly, unable to force his voice any louder.

"I'm not sure," said Robotnik. "I'll have to run a few tests. But at least one of my hypotheses is correct." He held up the uncut ruby, which was still glowing a deep red. "It is possible to manufacture artificial chaos emeralds."

Sonic and Sally appeared on Polaris Avenue in Sapphire City in a flash of green light, Sally clutching a briefcase in one hand and Sonic's hand in the other.

Two men in black GUN uniforms awaited them, and one stepped forward and extended a hand. "Princess? Roger Rickwood. It must be convenient to have a living teleporter at your disposal." He regarded Sonic, who met his gaze defiantly. Roger was tall, even for a human, with graying hair and hazel eyes. His companion was a soldier with a gun at his hip, and he watched the Mobians from behind a pair of shades that masked his eyes.

"Yes it is," said Sally, shaking Rickwood's hand. "This is Sonic, although he hardly needs an introduction."

"Yes, we're quite familiar with you, Sonic," said Rickwood, also shaking his hand.

"You should be," said Sonic, and kept between the men and Sally as they all walked into the GUN skyscraper. He shot Sally a look, and she widened her eyes and bared her teeth slightly - he was overreacting, knock off the tough guy attitude.

He rolled his eyes at her, and continued to shield her with his body as they entered an elevator. They rode it up to the fifth floor, and stepped out into an office. A conference table dominated the room, but its chairs were empty but for three at the far end. Three humans rose and bowed politely, and Sally nodded back. Sonic didn't bother to acknowledge the courtesy, but glared at them with narrowed eyes.

Rickwood escorted Sonic and Sally to seats near the others, and sat down, himself. He introduced everyone, and Sally discovered that these three strangers were chiefs of GUN command.

Rickwood folded his hands on the tabletop. "This all began as a grant to a research team who specialized in nanotech. Analytech." He slid a file toward Sally, who opened it and saw that it was information on the firm.

"Unfortunately," said Rickwood, "it seems that there is some corruption within GUN itself. After the firm was granted use of the facility on Deimos Island, someone else took over its supervision. One of the lower science officers has been filing false reports from the facilities, and ordering supplies sent out under fake invoices. He also masterminded blocking or rerouting your calls until earlier today, when we received a message pinpointing him as the culprit. We apprehended him, but he had destroyed all of his records. We don't know what has been shipped out there, aside from sketchy reports from our pilots. They do recall, however, that they transferred an escaped convict out there."

He looked at Sonic with a wry smile. "I assume you remember the Shadow project?"

Sonic stiffened, eyes widening. "You mean Shadow's out there at that lab?"

"Yes, a black hedgehog identified as Shadow," said Rickwood.

Sonic gave Sally a wild look, then sank back in his chair, eyes glazing. He looked as if he was going to be sick. Sally looked at him and recalled the distress message from the scientists, who were being forced to conduct 'illegal experiments' ...

She opened her own briefcase and handed Rickwood a copy of the message. "My techs received this message a few days ago from the scientists on Deimos Island. It's what got our attention in the first place."

Rickwood read the message, frowning, and passed it to his companions. When they had all read it, they looked at Sonic and Sally with new respect. "Well then, Princess," said Rickwood, "it seems as if both humans and Mobians find this situation embarrassing. It will take both our species to straighten it out."

"Yes," said Sally. "I'm prepared to work with you one hundred percent. We already had several evacuation attempts planned. Here is our information." She pulled a folder from her briefcase and handed it to Rickwood. The other officials leaned closer to see the folder's contents, and they flipped through it and whispered among themselves. Sally thought they looked surprised, even pleased.

She turned to check Sonic, and found him slumped in his chair, staring out the window. He had checked out of the conversation entirely. Sally felt a twinge of foreboding ... if Sonic put Shadow's safety first, he could endanger the lives of everyone else. And if the look on his face was any indication, Shadow's rescue had just become priority.

The sun glittered on the water, and the Tornado's prow sliced through the waves, opening them in a foamy V that trailed in the boat's wake. Mecha rode gripping the sides of the boat and staring straight ahead. The chao bounded from side to side, climbing up to watch the water flow by, and shouting over the noise of the engine.

Tails set his course by the Tornado's map, and guided them straight out to sea, the horizon empty and distant before them. Tails didn't know much about boating, but the weather was so calm that he was confident that the Tornado could handle deep water.

He looked over his shoulder at Mecha. Once they had left the harbor, Mecha had dropped his fox disguise, and it gave Tails chills to see the fierce blue robot sitting behind him. But right now Mecha looked anything but fierce. "What's the matter?" Tails asked.

"I do not like water," Mecha replied, barely audible over the engine.

Tails nodded and watched the navigation screen, and thought of the times when water had overpowered Mecha and all but destroyed him. He turned in his seat. "But you're organic now, right? You won't short out if you get wet, will you?"

"No," said Mecha, watching the horizon without blinking. "However, I cannot swim, and there is another unforeseen difficulty that has arisen."

"What?" Tails asked. "Should I stop?"

"No!" Mecha barked. "My discomfort does not matter. We must reach Deimos Island at all costs. This is merely another drawback of my power system."

Tails turned to face forward again, biting his lip to keep from smiling. Did that mean what he thought it meant? No wonder Mecha hated water!

They didn't speak for almost an hour, and the sun heated the inside of the boat while the whipping wind chilled the passengers. The chao huddled down in the space between the seats, and Tails crouched behind the Tornado's windscreen. Mecha gradually shifted to one side until he was riding with his head hanging over the edge of the boat. When Tails looked back, he saw that the android was throwing up. A moment later Mecha sat up again, his eyes glassy. "I despise water," he snarled softly. "And I despise this useless carbon-based power system!"

"Don't lose the horizon," Tails told him. "When you're carsick, you want to find the furthest thing away to look at."

"The motion of the craft is what affects me," growled Mecha. "I have not looked away from the horizon since we embarked."

Tails concentrated on driving for a while, and when he next looked around, the mainland had vanished behind them. There was nothing but water from horizon to horizon, and the Tornado suddenly seemed very small. But they had plenty of fuel, and the screen displayed the map with their course as a green line, so Tails knew that they weren't lost. He kept the Tornado moving at what would have been forty miles an hour on land. Tails supposed he should convert that to knots, but didn't know the conversion numbers. "Hey Mecha," he said, turning.

Mecha was lying crosswise across the seat with his head resting on the edge of the boat, eyes closed.

"Nevermind," Tails muttered.

Gradually the size of the ocean swell increased. The Tornado began to toss and roll, climbing up one wave, then dropping into the trough, then climbing the next one, and Tails struggled to hold the helm steady. In back, Mecha's seasickness worsened, but he had the presence of mind to make the chao climb into one of the backpacks which he held between his feet. He envisioned one of them falling overboard and being lost in this churning mass of vile water. The chao had grown quiet and still as the boat pitched.

"Mecha," said Aleda over the network, "what's wrong with me? My stomach feels all twisty."

"Motion sickness," Mecha replied. "The motion of the boat disorients the inner ear, which in turn distorts the operation of the stomach." He turned and threw up for the tenth time, then sank back into his seat, wiping his mouth and wondering if he was going into shock. He felt a grim resignation. There was nothing he could do to change the situation besides throwing himself overboard, and even that was looking more inviting as the sea grew rougher.

Tails was feeling an uneasiness in the pit of his stomach now, but he wouldn't let himself think about it. He was having to zigzag through each wave to avoid being swamped, and it took all of his strength to control the rudder. The Tornado paid close attention to his control, but kept its thoughts to itself.

Once, at the beginning of the voyage, it had said, "Tails, what happens if we sink?"

"We die," Tails had replied grimly.

After a few minutes, the Tornado had said, "Please do not let me sink."

"I won't," Tails had said, and he had been fighting to keep the boat afloat ever since. This was the first time that he had taken the AI-enabled Tornado into a dangerous situation, and Tails found that it frightened him. This craft had a mind of its own, a mind that trusted him and feared for its own survival. This must be what Sonic felt like when he took Tails with him on missions.

Tails imagined Sonic here with him, and grinned. Sonic would be as miserable as Mecha, except Sonic would complain more. And Tails would have Sonic's life in his hands, the way he did the chao, Mecha, and the Tornado. The thought sobered him, and he concentrated on steering and navigating.

Robotnik held up the glowing uncut ruby in a pair of tongs, admiring it for a moment, before he set it in a box and closed the lid. "I'm not certain how long the chaos charge lasts," he said to Shadow and Nick. "Maybe a few days or months. I'll run a few more tests. As for you," he said, striding up to Nick, "let's have a look at those nanites in your bloodstream."

He took a small syringe from a box, and took Nick's limp hand. Nick was slumped in his chair and didn't even twitch when Robotnik drew his blood.

As Robotnik inserted the syringe bottle into a sensor tube, he said, "How do you feel, Karabian?"

"Totally beat," said Nick, moving only his lips. "I could sleep for a year."

"Fascinating," said Robotnik, peering at him for a moment. "My first hypothesis is that you are sharing the same fatigue that Shadow develops after using too much chaos energy. But it could be that the chaos surge sapped the stored tone from your muscles. Are you in pain?"

"No," muttered Nick. "Just tired."

"Hmm." Robotnik ran an analysis on the nanites in Nick's blood, and said nothing else.

Nick turned his head and looked at Shadow. The black hedgehog was gazing at him, his natural eye sympathetic, and his robot eye cold and blank. They were in this together, and now they shared a desperate bond - if they could, they would help each other escape.

Robotnik broke the silence. "Well well, Mr. Karabian, you are now host to a swarm of nanites that have adapted to your cell structure."

Nick rolled his head toward his tormentor. "What's that mean?"

"I'm not sure," said Robotnik. "I need to observe you for several more days, but they seem to be multiplying at a tremendous rate. By my calculations, your immune system will attack the nanites within a few more hours, and you will develop leukemia symptoms and die." He smiled and shrugged.

Nick lacked the strength to even feel frightened. He looked at Shadow again, but Shadow was watching Robotnik with a murderous expression. Nick couldn't help but think that if Shadow ever regained control, then Robotnik wouldn't live very long.

One of the computers beeped, and Robotnik turned and looked at it. Then he stepped up and gazed at it with a frown. A slow smile spread across his face, a smile that Nick and Shadow did not like. Then Robotnik addressed his four assistant robots. "Disassemble and pack this equipment. Plan ninety-eight." The robots set about unplugging hoses and rolling up cords.

Robotnik looked at the screen again, grinning, and said, "The rescue party approaches! Pity I won't be here to see what happens."

"You're leaving?" said Nick.

"Of course," said Robotnik. "It's a pity that I can't take you two along, but you're going to die, and Shadow ... ahh, Shadow ..." He grinned at the hedgehog as if Shadow had just given him a winning lottery ticket. "Perhaps you will die, as well. I wish I could stay, really. I do like you, Shadow, but you're the key to destroying Metal Sonic, and he will probably destroy you in self defense. Or you may kill yourself. Such intriguing theories, so little time! I shall have to ask Robo Knux what happens." He turned and walked out.

As the airlock closed behind him, Shadow and Nick looked at each other. "No," whispered Shadow. "He wouldn't ask me to do that."

But they both knew that Robotnik would.

The Mobian skimship Lincanna was a glorified freighter. It looked like a flat square with a point at the front end, and railings all the way around that reached above a Mobian's head, but only came to the chest of a human. The underside of the ship was made of overlapping rubber fins that blasted air in varying amounts, forcing the craft to hover over the water. It moved fast, was hard to control, and sounded like an idling jet squadron.

Sonic watched as GUN officers hoisted three speedboats aboard with a crane on the dock, and secured the speedboats to the deck of the skimship. Then he turned and entered the bridge, which was a glass half-globe on the nose of the freighter. Inside were Sally, Roger Rickwood, and two Mobian pilots. They were seagulls with prehensile wingtips, and both of them looked smug about being privy to a secret mission.

"How fast can this thing go?" Sonic asked them.

The gulls looked at each other. "Well," said one, "I've had her up to ninety before, on calm days. We usually do about fifty. You don't want to bounce around too much when you're hauling cargo."

"You got that right," said the other. "Remember the Stardale? They ran her too fast in rough weather, hit a crest and flipped. These babies are tough to flip, but once they do, the weight of the jets on the bottom sinks the whole shebang. They lost everyone on the Stardale. I hear they're still trying to salvage her."

Sonic glanced at Sally, who looked horrified. So did Rickwood. "You don't think we'll have trouble, do you" he asked the pilots.

"Heck no!" they told him. "You humans may have the superior land weaponry, but we own you at sea."

GUN had liked their idea to use a skimship, because it could slip close to the island without being detected. They were afraid that if helicopters arrived on the island to apprehend Robotnik, he might kill the scientists out of panic. So they opted to use the stealthy Mobian approach, and send in helicopters afterward to clean up.

Sonic took Sally's hand and squeezed it comfortingly, and she squeezed back. Then she reached into the pocket of her vest and half-exposed a glowing violet gem inside. "Just in case," she murmured, thrusting the chaos emerald back into hiding.

Sonic held up the green chaos emerald in his other hand. "I got it covered, Sal. Don't you worry." He seemed about to say something else, but glanced at the people around them and changed his mind.

"Sonic," said Sally, "we have to get the scientists clear before you go after Shadow."

He looked at her sharply, green eyes flaming, then calmed. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Heck, he's probably locked up with them. I can't believe I never saw him all the times I was there!"

"Remember who we're working with," said Sally, nodding at Rickwood's back, which had GUN stencilled across it. "They don't like Shadow."

"Or me, either," Sonic said under his breath. "Yeah. I might have to arrange for Shadow to escape, and that'd go over like a lead balloon. I just hope he's okay."

"I know." Sally didn't dare say anything else, and walked to the convex glass window and watched men and Mobians bustling around the dock, securing cargo. Sonic stepped up beside her and watched, as well.

"Hey," he said over his shoulder to the pilots, "how come stuff carried by ship is cargo, and stuff carried by car is a shipment?"

The pilots guffawed, and to her surprise, Sally did, too. Sonic's sense of humor always caught her off guard, and it was a welcome relief to laugh after the stress of the past few days.

"Oh yeah?" said Sally. "How come they're called apartments when they're all together?"

Sonic threw back his head and roared.

One of the pilots said, "And why is abbreviation such a long word?"

Even Rickwood cracked a smile at that one.

Sally wiped her streaming eyes and watched as the workers strapped down the final speedboat. It was almost time to depart, and a good thing, too. She didn't know what she would do if the jokes became any cornier.

The sun began to swing toward the west, and Tails squinted against the glare on the water. The sea was still rough, and his back and shoulders ached from fighting the wheel for so long. His fur felt damp and clammy from the wind-tossed spray, and he was losing his battle with seasickness.

"Tails," said Mecha from the rear seat, "I regret having to ask such a question, but are we there yet?"

Tails glanced back at the android, who was curled up in the seat, half-leaning against the side of the boat, and Aleda was in his lap. Tails saw his own misery in Mecha's dim eyes, and turned back to the Tornado's screen. "We're about fifteen miles away," said Tails. "Sorry I can't go any faster, but the Tornado's too small to be out here."

"That is emphatically correct," muttered Mecha. He shifted positions and squinted at the western horizon, which was aflame with the golden sun and its shimmering reflection. After a while he remarked, "I believe I can see Deimos Island, but the glare makes it difficult."

Tails shaded his eyes with one hand and thought that he could make out a dark shape against the sky. "Good!" he said. "I just hope that I can find the harbor. I'd hate to have to beach the Tornado."

The Tornado chugged on, its modified propeller beating the water, rolling from one side to the other like a dying fish. Mecha, Nox and Aleda stared toward the island until they were nearly blind from the intense light, and their approach seemed maddeningly slow. Tails longed to punch the throttle all the way open and let the Tornado's jet engine rocket them to shore, but he knew that this would flip the Tornado instantly, especially in these waters.

The golden light on the ocean deepened to amber as the sun sank. The island was visible now, a solid dark band in the midst of the tossing, gleaming sea. Tails made for it as directly as he could, feeling his own nausea abate at the mere sight of land. Mecha, too, seemed to feel better, and scrutinized the island's coastline with his scanners.

"Tails," he said, "my scans indicate that the island's coastline is composed entirely of cliffs."

"Great," muttered Tails. "I hope nobody's watching the harbor. Where's the harbor, Mecha?"

Mecha slowly turned his head from side to side as he scanned. He straightened. "Tails, there is another craft departing the island and travelling north."

"Really?" Tails peered across the ocean, but could see nothing. "Who's in it?"

"It contains one living occupant," said Mecha. "Beyond that, identification is impossible." His voice dropped. "But it is probably Robotnik."

"Probably," said Tails, lying his ears back. "And the slime just ran for it, too! Which means that saving Shadow will be easy."

"Robo Knux is still on the island," said Mecha, and lapsed into silence for a while.

The island took shape as they neared its natural walls, and Tails uneasily observed the waves breaking in foam over submerged rocks and reefs, and the way the waves pounded the cliffs. If he took the Tornado too close, the water would beat them to pieces on the rocks. "Mecha, can you see the harbor?" he said over his shoulder.

"Yes," Mecha replied. "It is three hundred meters to the north. I pinpointed it using the trajectory of the departing craft."

Tails concentrated on guiding the Tornado along the island's rim, feeling the tug of the tide as it tried to carry them into the cliffs. He couldn't see the harbor until they were opposite it, and suddenly the cliffs receded in a small cove with a dock that looked welcoming. Tails made for it in relief, and the waves shrank as they passed between the outer cliff walls.

He cut the engine as they coasted up to the dock, and jumped out onto the solid planking. For a moment it seemed as if the dock was shifting and rolling beneath him, but he regained his balance and said, "Hey Mecha, toss me the anchor rope." Mecha did so, and Tails tied the Tornado to a piling.

Mecha climbed out, staggering until he, too, had reoriented himself to solid ground. Then he gazed around the cove with a calculating eye. "Tails," he said, "I must go to the facility up there alone."

"What?" exclaimed Tails. "No way, I'm going with you!"

"Negative," said Mecha, shaking his head. "Robo Knux's objective is to slaughter everyone around me. That includes you, and you are unarmed. Remain with the Tornado. It has weapons that will deter even Robo Knux. You must look after the chao until I bring Shadow to you."

"But Mecha," said Tails.

Mecha bared his teeth and clenched a fist in the fox's face. "You let Robo Knux take Aleda once. Do it again and I swear that you will pay with your life."

Tails backed away, eyes wide, tucking his tails between his legs. For a moment he had forgotten that this was Mecha and had treated him like Sonic, but Mecha did not allow such familiarity. "Okay Mecha," said Tails meekly.

Without another word, Mecha whirled and strode up the path.

As he vanished around the edge of the cove, Aleda said, "You know Tails, Mecha didn't tell me to stay here."

"I know," said Tails, climbing back into the Tornado and sitting in the pilot seat again. "But like he said, Robo Knux will try to kill you."

"Why, what happened before?" said Aleda, looking first at Tails, then at the cliff path.

"It was terrible," said Nox before Tails could respond. "Robo Knux just knocked Tails down and grabbed you, but you didn't understand what was happening. He hurt you so bad that Mecha thought you were dead, and it broke his heart." Nox gazed fiercely up at the cliff path. "Mecha didn't tell me to stay here, either. And Shadow's up there."

"You're both staying right here," said Tails, glaring at the chao, who looked rebellious. Then, as they looked up at the path again, Tails said, "Here, trade me seats. If something happens to me, you ought to know how to make the Tornado defend us."

Now that was something Nox and Aleda wanted to do. They obeyed at once.

Nick and Shadow were alone in lab 1. Robotnik's robots had packed up all of his equipment and carried it out, and the lab seemed bare and empty without it. Robotnik had left, as well, locking the airlock door from the outside. But before leaving, he had attached a tiny radio transmitter to the side of Shadow's head, which allowed Robotnik to give Mekion commands remotely. A green light showed that it was active, and Shadow was facing the airlock door as if awaiting attack.

Nick remained in his chair, dozing off for minutes at a time in the silence. He wondered if he was going into hibernation, or if the nanites inside of him were going to kill him by putting him to sleep. That might not be so bad.

He snapped awake as a tinny crackle filled the room. Shadow turned his head, wincing, as the transmitter blared into his ear. "Mekion, do you hear me?" came Robotnik's voice.

"Yes Master," Shadow whispered.

"Good," said Robotnik. "Metal Sonic is on his way. He is the enemy. Do you understand, Mekion? I command you to destroy him."

Shadow closed his natural eye with an expression of despair. "Yes Master," he whispered. "I understand. I will destroy Metal Sonic." He shook his head from side to side, then began to pace around the room, his movements jerky.

"Shadow," said Nick, "Metal Sonic was your original master?"

"Yes," whispered Shadow, but he was battling Mekion again. "No. He created Mekion. But Mekion can be reprogrammed. No! Mecha was never my master. Robotnik deserves my allegiance. I will carry out his commands. No! Not Mecha. Yes! Kill him! Augh!" He gripped his head.

Outside, Mecha had arrived at the fence ringing the facility. He gazed at the windowless lab buildings with an expression of loathing, then ripped the electric lock off the gate. He flung it on the ground and heaved the gate open, then strode across the inner yard to the front doors. At this point he was so ticked off that he could break down the walls, if he had to.

He reached the front doors and slashed his claws through their electronic lock, as well. He pressed one hand against the top corner of the door and liquefied his biometal. The liquid metal flowed into the gap in the frame, and Mecha twisted his hand and jerked the weather stripping off the front of the door. He withdrew his biometal hand and repeated the process with the other corners. Then he stuck his hands in the top of the doors and yanked them outward. They opened with a dying whine of machinery, and Mecha was blasted by air from the interior of the building. Blinking, he stepped inside.

He swept the lobby with his scanners. Four labs. Four lifeforms were in lab 3, and two were in lab 1. There was no sign of Robo Knux, and hopefully Mecha could locate Shadow before Robo Knux detected him. He scanned the people in the labs carefully. Mekion was one of the two people in lab 1.

Mecha strode to the airlock door, tore the lock off, and stepped into the airlock as it rotated shut. It pressurized, and the inner door opened - and Mecha found himself nose to nose with Shadow, who was standing on the other side of the door.

Mecha had a split second in which to notice that Mekion's red eye was blazing so brightly that it was in danger of burning out, and that Shadow's natural eye was fixed and staring. Then Mekion struck Metal Sonic in the face with his metal fist.

Metal Sonic staggered back, stunned both by the blow and the attack. Mekion stalked into the airlock with him, drawing back his metal fist for another blow.

"Shadow!" Mecha exclaimed. "What are you doing? How dare you!"

"I have been commanded to destroy you," hissed Mekion with Shadow's mouth, and swung his fist. Metal Sonic dodged, and Mekion's fist clanged against the wall of the airlock chamber. Metal Sonic ducked out of the chamber into the open space of the lab, and Mekion followed him, panting through his teeth.

A human sat in a chair before the computers along one wall, watching all this with interest. "Who are you?" Metal Sonic asked, circling the vacuum tube, keeping it between himself and Shadow.

"I'm Nick," said the human. "Another of Robotnik's experiments, I'm afraid."

Shadow spindashed, and Mecha dove out of the way in a spindash of his own. "Mekion!" he shouted. "I command you to stop immediately! You are in violation of the First Law!"

"Negative," said Shadow. "Dr. Robotnik is my master, and he commanded me to destroy you." Suddenly he gave an anguished whispering cry and doubled up, holding his head. "No, no, no! I can't, I can't do this!"

The radio transmitter on the side of his head crackled, and Robotnik's voice said, "Kill him, Shadow. Weakness is no excuse."

Shadow straightened up, but his natural eye had begun to stream tears. "I hate you!" he screamed in a whisper, and flung himself at Mecha in a spin.

Mecha dove into a spin himself, and struck Shadow at an angle, sending him crashing into the wall. Mecha had been aiming for that transmitter, but to his grief he saw that he had missed, slashing across Shadow's natural arm instead.

Shadow was bleeding as he leaped to his feet, and he clutched his injured arm to his chest. "I'm sorry," he whispered to Mecha.

"I'm sorry," Mecha replied. He felt as if someone was cutting out his heart with a rusty knife. Shadow, his friend, was being forced to attack him against his will. And Mecha had hurt Shadow, just as he had that fatal night when his pride and folly had ruled supreme. Mecha remembered the bitter taste of Shadow's blood in his mouth, and wondering momentarily if Shadow had really deserved that ...

He thought of his defeat, and of how Shadow had cared for him afterwards. Shadow was the reason that Mecha was still alive.

He sidestepped as Mekion spindashed again and dented the wall. "Shadow," said Mecha, "I can't hurt you again. Stop attacking, I'll comply with your wishes."

"I want you to die!" Shadow snarled, but his voice was choked. Tears were running down the natural side of his face, dripping onto the floor. He motioned for Mecha to run with his natural hand, then put his head down and ran at Mecha, his robot hand extended. Mecha raised his own hands and caught Shadow's robot hand. "Mekion," he said, "you are the enemy here. What is your control percentage?"

"One hundred percent," Mekion snarled, his nose inches from Mecha's.

Shadow closed his natural eye and bowed his head, as his robot hand slowly twisted Mecha's arm sideways. "I can't, I can't," Shadow whispered. Then he raised his head as Mekion and grabbed Mecha's throat in his natural hand.

Mecha knew dozens of ways to kill Shadow and free himself. He had one free hand, which meant that he could tear out Shadow's eye, or jugular, or break his neck, or any number of things. But Shadow was not the enemy - he was weeping as he fought, unable to stop himself. Mekion was the enemy, and there was no way to stop him without hurting Shadow.

Mecha reached up and clawed the radio transmitter off the side of Mekion's head, then liquefied into a semi-solid pool of biometal. He slipped out of Mekion's grasp, and Mekion danced backwards, out of reach of the murky silver fluid. Mecha pulled his shape back together, stood up and faced his rogue creation.

"Mekion," he said, "open your network port."

"Never!" hissed Mekion. "You'll modify my programming the way you did before." He turned his head slightly and said, "Do it, Mekion. No! You have no say anymore, Shadow!" He bolted forward, curling into a deadly spin, and Metal Sonic ducked aside. Mekion continued to rave, but at himself. "I have control, you fool! Complete control! Robotnik is our Master!"

At the word he gagged, staggered and clutched his stomach. "Mecha," he whispered, looking at the android desperately, "you have to disable me."

"No, I can't," said Metal Sonic.

"Do it!" screamed Shadow, charging at Mecha again. This time he grabbed Mecha in a chokehold and tried to throttle him. "Hurt me, hurt me, hurt me, die, die, die!" he hissed in an insane rhythm, then suddenly released Mecha, whirled and beat his own head against the wall. "Submit or I'll kill us both!" Mekion snarled.

Shadow collapsed to the floor, sobbing and holding his head. The laws programmed into Mekion compelled his obedience, but Shadow knew that attacking Metal Sonic was the deepest wrong he could commit. Mecha was his one friend, the one person left alive who had ever been kind to him. Mecha had come to save him, and Shadow was attacking him! Every time he spindashed, he screamed inside his head, terrified that this time he would strike. This time he would land a fatal hit. So far he had not actually hurt Mecha, but if he did, Shadow was prepared to kill himself somehow. He was trapped in a nightmare with no escape, crushed under the violent fury of his robotic brain.

"Shadow," said Mecha quietly, head bowed, "don't be afraid. Mekion is out of control, but we shall soon set him right. You have to fight him."

Mekion leaped to his feet, teeth bared. "How dare you speak to him, fiend!" But Shadow's natural ear had pricked forward, and he gazed at Mecha with sudden hope.

"If I hurt you," said Mecha, still in that soft, anguished voice, "Mekion's control levels will drop because he cannot process pain. When that happens, you must open the network port."

Shadow nodded.

Mecha stepped forward, but hesitated, biting his lower lip. Hurting Shadow was the last thing he wanted to do. He had come to rescue Shadow, not hurt him. Dr. Robotnik was even more twisted than Mecha remembered.

He waited too long, and Mekion sprang into another spindash, this time striking Metal Sonic a glancing blow and knocking him down. Mecha got up with a raw silver gash across his arm and face. They closed up again within seconds, but it sent Shadow into a panicked frenzy.

"He hurt you, he hurt you, I can't stop him, Mecha!" He clawed at his own body, trying to restrain his robot hand, but Mekion held it out of reach.

Mecha shook his head to clear the pain, and said quietly, "Charge me again, Shadow. And I apologize in advance for the pain." He held out his arms to make himself a bigger target.

Shadow stared at him, his breath coming in shuddering sobs, tears still running down his face. "Kill me," he whispered, and flung himself into a spindash.

Mecha dodged again, and as the black hedgehog struck the wall, Mecha pounced on him. He held Shadow flat with one foot, and with surgical precision he clenched his hands together and smashed them down on Shadow's organic shin. The bone snapped, and Shadow wailed, a hideous, tearing sound in his broken voice.

"Lie still!" Mecha commanded, grasping the injured leg. With a sharp jerk, he pulled the bone out straight and set it back in place.

The pain of the break was bad, but the pain of setting the break was so extreme that Shadow almost fainted. Suddenly Mekion's control dropped to half, then a third. Shadow's brain was so charged with nerve impulses that they blocked Mekion's input, but he was in such pain that he couldn't remember what he was supposed to do.

The corners of his vision were dark and all sounds seemed to come through a long metal tube, but Shadow saw Mecha stooping over him. Mecha's eyes glistened with sorrow and remorse, but all he said was, "Open Mekion's network port."

Shadow found that he could direct Mekion to obey, and was dimly aware of receiving network signals again. Then he swam away into unconsciousness, where neither pain nor Mekion could touch him.

The skimship Lincanna cruised over the ocean, and Sonic and Sally stood at the railing, gazing into the sunset. Somewhere out there was an island of prisoners, whom they were going to set free. The wind cut into their faces, and the freighter was so large that the ocean's swell only rocked it gently.

Sally checked her watch. "The pilot says we'll arrive in an hour. It'll be dark by then."

"Yep." Sonic shifted his weight from foot to foot. The further they travelled, the more the idea of Sally accompanying him to Deimos Island sent ripples of panic through him. What if something happened to her? What if she tried to help him, and got in the line of fire? What if Robo Knux went after her? She wouldn't stand a chance. She couldn't even control her chaos emerald properly, because she had no training.

He watched her out of the corner of his eye as the wind blew her forelock across her face. If only she could hear his thoughts and understand his terror for her ... Sonic thought that he understood Knuckles a little better now. Knuckles was ultra-protective of Zephyer to the point where he and Zephyer had fights over it. Sonic knew that Sally wouldn't tolerate his protective attitude, because after all, she had spent most of her life in wartime situations. But this time Sonic was up against enemies he was familiar with. He knew what they were capable of, and the thought of Sally impaled on Robo Knux's claws was more than he could stand.

Why not propose now? They were alone on the deck, and Sonic had the ring. He looked at Sally, then down at the water flowing by the ship. He drew a deep breath as if about to dive in, and sank to one knee. "Sally," he said.

She turned and saw him kneeling, and her face lit up. "What, Sonic?"

"Princess Acorn!" Rickwood called, stepping out of the bridge and waving.

Sonic said, "Uh ... my shoe's unbuckled." He pretended to tighten the strap on his sneaker.

Sally laughed in exasperation and pulled him to his feet. "Sure it was," she said, and they walked up to the bridge. Sonic's face was burning. Who would have thought that this romance stuff would be so embarrassing?

In lab 3, Barlet, Lintel, Kray and Touis were working on the new batch of upgrades for Robo Knux when they were startled by thumps and crashes through the south wall. They froze and listened. "What's going on in there?" Kray whispered.

The crashes continued, and they could hear raised voices, muffled by distance and walls. Then silence fell, and they looked at each other. "Robotnik must have attacked Nick," said Barlet, ears flattening. "Should I go look?"

"We both will," said Touis. "Lintel, Kray, stay here and bar the door. Robotnik might have decided that our time is up."

Barlet gulped, and Lintel and Kray nodded. Then the squirrel and chipmunk hurried to the airlock.

The light in the lobby was different, and the air smelled fresh and non-sterile. Then they saw that the outer doors had been broken open and were hanging at odd angles, and their weather stripping lay in tangles on the threshold.

"Somebody broke in," said Touis softly.

"Or out," said Barlet, examining the latches on the sides. "Somebody just broke the machinery in them, look at the snapped wires!"

"Who would be strong enough to do that?" said Touis in a hushed voice. "Robo Knux has a keycard. Would he do this?"

"You're asking me?" said Barlet. He hurried down the hall. "Look, somebody broke the control plate off the airlock to lab one!" He lifted the broken box off the floor. It had three cuts through the plastic housing that looked disturbingly like clawmarks.

Touis strode up and looked at the ruined controls, then at the closed airlock. "We can't open the door from this side," he said. "Whoever is in there better have working controls or they're trapped."

Barlet looked up and down the drafty hallway. "I wonder where Robotnik is."

"Let's check the other labs," said Touis.

The pair hurried to lab 2, entered through the airlock, and looked around. Nobody was there. They left and checked lab 4. It, too was devoid of people, but packed full of everything else. It appeared as if Robotnik had dumped all of his extra equipment into this lab, and boxes were scattered everywhere, heaped with discarded instruments.

"There's a fortune worth of stuff in here!" exclaimed Barlet. "Why doesn't he take better care of this stuff?"

"He's got a screw loose," said Touis in disgust. "Look at this!" He reached into a nearby box and pulled out the cage-like object that Robotnik had forced Shadow to wear. The orange chaos emerald was still clamped in its claws. "Aren't these things rare?" said Touis, examining the gem. "He just threw it away!"

"Let's keep it," said Barlet. "Might come in handy if we have to barter for our lives."

"Right." Touis slid his arm into the cage until his hand rested against the chaos emerald. "Now, if only I was chaos positive," he said, smirking.

"Let's get out of here," said Barlet. "I feel like someone's watching us. Robotnik must be locked in lab one with Nick."

They left through the airlock, and the lobby outside was silent and empty, the outer doors still hanging open. It was twilight outside, and Barlet paused at the doors and touched Touis's shoulder. They could see that the gate was open in the fence that ringed the facility. "Touis," whispered Barlet, "where are the E-200 robots?"

It dawned on both of them that they hadn't seen the menacing little machines in any of the labs. And here lay the sort of damage that only a robot could do.

The pair bolted back to lab 3, entered the airlock, and knocked at the inside door as the chamber pressurized. The inner door cracked open, and Kray peered in at them. Then he opened the door all the way, looking relieved. "What'd you find?"

Touis held up the cage on his arm that contained the chaos emerald. "A bargaining tool. And it looks like the E-200 robots have gone rogue, the outer doors are smashed ..."

Shadow drifted back to consciousness. There was an excruciating throbbing in his right leg, and Mekion was processing information. Shadow guessed that Mecha was working on removing Robotnik's patch.

Shadow opened his natural eye. Mecha was sitting beside him with his head bowed, gazing at him with a vacant expression. It took all of Mecha's concentration to work on Mekion through the network.

On Shadow's other side was Nick, sitting on his hands and knees. Shadow thought in a detached sort of way how all creatures looked pitiful when shaved, even humans, who were mostly hairless to begin with. "Hello," Shadow whispered.

"Hi," said Nick. "I can't believe he broke your leg, then turned around and set it."

"He had to," said Shadow. As consciousness returned, the throbbing in his leg extended to the rest of his body, especially his right arm. He winced and turned his head a little to see Nick with his right eye, for his left eye was dead. "My body heals rapidly, and I'm packed with nanites that accelerate the process even further. If he didn't set my leg, it would heal crooked in a few hours."

Nick whistled softly. "I wish I healed that fast."

"Will you two be quiet?" Mecha growled. "Mekion has been utterly scrambled. I cannot fathom how Robotnik did this. It appears as if he loosed a virus into Mekion's matrix."

"A virus?" said Shadow. "But is that possible?"

"Mekion operates on nano-neuro principles," said Mecha, frowning. "I was not aware that it was possible to design viruses for such a system. In an organic brain, it would be similar to dementia."

"Can you fix it?" asked Nick.

Mecha shot him a sarcastic glance. "That is what I have been trying to do."

"Can you lock his control back to one percent?" Shadow asked.

"Certainly," said Mecha. "But he still considers Robotnik to be his master. That is the part that I am having difficulty changing."

There was a moment of silence, and Shadow closed his eye. He whispered through clenched teeth, "When this is over, I'll no longer be a pawn for the powerful."

"No," said Mecha. "When this is over, you may be dead."

Shadow opened his eye. "What?"

Mecha shook his head. "I apologize for making you into Mekion, Shadow. Mekion will stop at nothing until he has overcome you, as long as the data corruption exists. I do not have the facilities or time to properly repair his processors. I have reset his control to one percent, but I can not guarantee that it will remain there."

The network noise in Shadow's head stopped, and his mechanical eye flicked on. He lifted his head and slowly sat up. He could control his robot limbs again, but Mekion felt cold and distant in his head. Shadow half expected him to speak in a different language. "Data log?" Shadow asked.

"No data has been logged," Mekion replied.

That was strange. Shadow looked at Mecha, who nodded. "As I said, Mekion has suffered heavy damage. And so has Shadow."

Shadow looked at his injured leg and saw that two aluminum bars had been strapped to either side of it. Nearby lay the remains of a dismantled desk chair that Mecha had commandeered, which explained why Nick was sitting on the floor.

"You may attempt to walk," said Mecha, rising to his feet. "I must convey you to the Tornado. The sooner I can return you to our home base, the sooner I can repair Mekion."

Shadow struggled to his feet, pain lancing through his leg and arm. Mecha helped him up, and so did Nick. Mecha threw the human a long, distrustful look.

"Nick's okay," Shadow panted. "He got caught trying to escape, so they put him with me as punishment. Robotnik pumped him full of chaos-charged nanites to see what happened."

"Oh?" Mecha tilted his head to one side and regarded Nick with new interest. "What happened?"

"It burned off everything but my skin," said Nick, smiling sheepishly. "I'm also really tired, but that's wearing off. I can walk now."

"You should have died," said Mecha. "You are a human. However, since you are alive, you are still useful. Assist Shadow in walking, while I ... open the ... airlock ..." Mecha trailed off, turning his head to gaze at the open airlock chamber.

"Robo Knux," he hissed, and his body liquefied into silver metal. He reformed into Sonic, but a Sonic that looked hard and angry. "Stay still and be quiet," he whispered in Sonic's voice. "I do not think he has yet detected me."

Robo Knux had been standing out on the cliffs that ringed the island, gazing east into the darkening horizon. He had taken up his post shortly after the Tornado had arrived, and missed seeing it. He was awaiting the Mobian rescue party.

He thought it was amusing that Robotnik had fled, instead of remaining behind to take the heat for his actions. Robo Knux had helped Robotnik load his few boxes of delicate lab equipment into the boat that he was taking with him. And while doing so, Robo Knux had discreetly taken the orange chaos emerald in its testing cage out of Robotnik's things and placed it back in the lab. In Robo Knux's opinion, Robotnik was better off without a chaos emerald, and it might give Robo Knux power over his old master later on.

What to do about the rescue party? Robo Knux thought about it and gazed out to sea as the wind beat the trees around him. He was adept at thinking up half-truths, and by the time the skimship Lincanna appeared on his scanner, he had a story to tell the scientists. Then he would simply keep out of sight of Sonic and the rest. Once they were back in their old lab, Robo Knux would finish his upgrades, and the hunt for Metal Sonic would begin ...

The Mobian skimship was about fifteen minutes away. Robo Knux turned and strode through the woods toward the laboratory, rehearsing his story in his mind. His steps slowed as he reached the outer gate. What in the world? Someone had broken it open! Robo Knux hurried inside and saw that the lab's front doors had been forced open, as well. He stepped into the lobby and scanned each lab. Lab 3 contained the soon-to-be-rescued scientists, and lab 1 contained three lifeforms.

Robo Knux squinted. One was Nick, and one was Mekion, and the third ... A lifeform. He ran a detail scan on it and relaxed. Sonic. Of course, the little teleporting pest. Leave it to him to smash a way in so he could spirit everyone away easier. Well, Robo Knux would deal with him later. He strode to lab 3 and entered the airlock.

The inside door did not open at first, and Robo Knux tapped his claws on it. It opened a crack, and Touis peered in at him. "Oh, hello," said Touis, opening the door.

"Greetings," said Robo Knux. "Enacting a bit of security, are we?"

"Something busted the doors and fence," said Touis. "We're understandably concerned."

"Sure," said Robo Knux. "Sonic's here. He broke in, probably thinking there's guards or something. He's with Nick and Mekion right now, and he'll be here in a minute."

All four faces lit up, and the Mobians looked delighted.

"You have me to thank for that," said Robo Knux, looking proud. "I summoned Sonic and his team myself. I suggest that you pack your things. I won't be accompanying you, sadly, but you're in good hands now."

"What about Robotnik?" said Lintel. "Where's he?"

"He left already," said Robo Knux in disgust. "Coward. Anyway, I look forward to seeing you again. Don't forget who is responsible for getting you off Deimos Island."

He turned and strode into the airlock.

Suckers.

Tails drummed his fingers fretfully on the Tornado's rim. "It's dark," he muttered. "What could be taking Mecha so long?"

"Maybe Shadow's hurt," said Nox. The black chao was sitting on the back of the pilot's chair, gazing up at the cliff path. The cliff itself was a dark silhouette against the twilight sky, and the cove was dark. The only sound was the slap of water against the dock and the distant boom of the breakers.

Tails's anxiety had grown as time passed. He had thought that Mecha would return within ten or twenty minutes, but it had been almost an hour now with no sign of him. "Aleda," said Tails, "can you ask Mecha where he is?"

"I can't," said Aleda, sitting in the back seat and also watching the cliff path. "He's too far away. I can only talk on the network if I'm real close."

Tails almost said, "Then what's the good of having it?" but bit his tongue. Snapping at the chao wouldn't accomplish anything.

He stood up and stepped onto the dock. "I'm gonna go look around," he told the chao. "Tornado, look after them, and you two stay in the Tornado. I'll be right back."

"Why can't we go?" exclaimed Nox, jumping down into the pilot's seat.

"It's too dangerous," said Tails, glaring. "And I don't have a chaos emerald for either of you, so stay here, okay?"

Nox and Aleda looked mutinous, but Tails turned and walked off anyway. Part of him screamed that he shouldn't leave them, not with Robo Knux on the loose, but Tails had to do something. He couldn't wait around anymore. He ran up the cliff path on tiptoe.

"Robo Knux is gone," whispered Shadow.

He, Nick and Mecha had waited tensely as their enemy entered the lab next door, and Mecha had turned off his scanners and blocked his network port so that he wouldn't register as a robot to scanners. His disguise had worked, for Robo Knux had departed. Shadow watched him with Mekion's scanner. Now he looked at Nick and the pseudo-Sonic.

"Good," said Nick. "We've got to go get the others. We can't leave them here."

"What do you suggest?" said Mecha in his own voice, for using Sonic's voice galled him. "Our craft is scarcely large enough for three passengers."

"There's a couple of speedboats in the boathouse," said Nick. "They can take one of those."

Mecha nodded. "Affirmative. Let us depart."

He and Nick helped Shadow to the airlock and opened it with the inside controls. The outer corridor was dark and silent, and they hurried through it with nervous glances over their shoulders, half-expecting to see Robo Knux's green eyes flicker on behind them.

They entered lab 1, and the other scientists welcomed them with open arms. To Shadow and Nick's surprise, the Mobians gathered around Mecha, shaking his hands. "Thanks so much for coming to rescue us! You have no idea how much it means to us!"

Mecha accepted the praise with a bemused smile. Taking Sonic's form had its perks. "Just doing my job," he said in Sonic's voice. "Get your stuff and let's jam."

He cast a glance at Shadow to see how good his impersonation was, and Shadow gave him a twisted smile. Mecha was dead-on.

The real Sonic was standing on the deck of the Lincanna, watching the island approach and listening to the thunder of the surf. He tossed his green chaos emerald from hand to hand and looked around as Sally walked up behind him.

"Okay Sonic," she said, "you're cleared to go."

"You're staying with the boats, right?" said Sonic.

"Right," said Sally. "Don't worry about me. Now go! You know the plan."

He nodded and swallowed. "Love you, Sal. Chaos relocate!" He vanished in a green sparkle.

Sally looked at the spot where he had been and muttered, "I wish you'd say that when you're planning on sticking around afterwards."

Sonic appeared outside the door to the underground power station. He looked around the empty yard for any sign of trouble, then spindashed the door. It smashed open, and Sonic peered down a stairwell leading down into darkness. "Chaos control," he whispered, and time froze. He snapped on a light on the headset he wore, and held up the gem in his hand for extra light as he descended the stairs.

In the crystal's light, Sonic saw three generators that would have been running in real time. The air was hot and stank of gasoline fumes, and Sonic saw that each generator sported Robotnik's logo.

Sonic followed the cables that led out of the generators, and located a fusebox on the wall. He opened it and threw all the breakers, grinning. Then he galloped back up the stairs and hissed, "Timestart!"

Inside the laboratory complex, all the lights went off. "What's going on?" said Nick in alarm.

"Power failure," said Mecha. "It is no cause for alarm."

"Yeah it is!" said Lintel. "Electronic doors, guys! We can't get out unless the power comes back on."

Mecha cursed.

Tails arrived at the top of the cliff path, panting. He had nearly fallen through the gap in the trail, and saved himself only by spinning his tails and flying to safety. It had unnerved him. He thought he had seen lights through the trees, but they were gone now, and he was shivering in the wind, wondering where to go.

He peered through the darkness and realized that there was a paved road leading off into the trees, and he followed it, keeping to the edge. The further he walked, the more he wished that he had stayed with the Tornado. He doubted that Mecha would be glad to see him once he found him. And if something happened to Aleda and Nox, it would be Tails's fault, and Mecha kept his word when it came to inflicting pain.

Something gleamed up ahead, and Tails squinted. A fence? He stepped forward and touched chain link. Yes, a fence. And the gate in it was open. He stepped through and emerged from the trees. Buildings of some sort stood before him, but there were no lights anywhere. Maybe the windows were shuttered or something.

Footsteps. Tails spun around to see a pair of glowing green eyes fixed on him from outside the chainlink fence. Robo Knux. Terror pierced Tails's middle and his adrenaline surged. Should he run or stand his ground? He tried to remember what Sonic had told him about dealing with Mecha-bots, but all he could remember was Sonic saying, "Once you've see Robo Knux, he's seen you, and there's no escape then."

He backed away slowly, and Robo Knux barked, "Hold it, fox."

Tails froze, his heart thundering in his ears.

Robo Knux stepped inside the fence, his eyes flicking up, down, and from side to side. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm, uh." Tails didn't know what to say. He couldn't tell Robo Knux about Mecha!

"Speak up," said Robo Knux, holding up one fist and rotating it so his claws glinted in the light from his eyes.

Tails gulped. "I'm looking for Shadow."

"Shadow?" said the robot. "What would you want with him? We're a long way from help, Tails."

"He, he sent me a distress, signal," said Tails, trembling so hard he could hardly open his mouth. "I came to rescue him."

"By yourself?" Robo Knux stepped toward him. "Sounds more like something Mecha would do. You have that plane, don't you?"

Tails nodded.

Robo Knux looked past him, at the lab facility, and his voice dropped to a deadly purr. "Where's Mecha?"

"I don't know," said Tails.

Robo Knux grabbed him by the neck and one arm, which he began to twist backwards. "Let's see if I can refresh your memory," he hissed.

Tails tried to struggle and realized that if he moved, the claws on Robo Knux's hand would cut his throat, not to mention his arm would break. "Ow, stop, please!"

"Where's Metal Sonic?" growled Robo Knux, his dazzling green eyes inches from Tails's own.

"I don't know!" Tails cried. "I was looking for him!"

Robo Knux's eyes again lifted to the building beyond them, and for an instant Tails saw the intricate layering of the robot's irises and pupils - had they always looked like that? Then Robo Knux blinked and returned his gaze to Tails. "It wasn't Sonic, was it?" he growled.

Tails didn't know what he was talking about.

Robo Knux whirled and slammed Tails's head into one of the fence's support poles, and dropped the unconscious fox on the ground. "Can't have you warning him," Robo Knux told him, then whirled and ran for the lab.

Two minutes later a blue hedgehog trotted around the front of the building, keeping close to the fence. His blue fur and spines made him almost invisible in the darkness, and he watched the lab building as he walked. One of his feet collided with something soft, and he stopped and looked down. "What the heck?"

Sonic snapped on the light on his headset. In the tiny circle of light he saw orange and white fur, two tails. "Oh my gosh," Sonic whispered, dropping to his knees. "Tails, what are you doing here?" His brain reeled with disbelief - he had left Tails in Sapphire City, looking for Shadow! Oh heck, looking for Shadow - had Tails tracked him here?

He turned him over, looking for blood and checking for a pulse. To his relief he found one, as well as a large knot on Tails's head. "Tails," he whispered, shaking him. "This is a really bad time to get knocked out! Wake up, okay?"

Tails inhaled and opened his eyes. "Huh?" Then he squirmed backwards, gasping.

"Tails, it's me, Sonic," said Sonic. "Cool it, man."

"Sonic?" said Tails, shielding his eyes from Sonic's headlight. "What are you doing here?"

"I should ask you the same question," said Sonic, realizing that he was angry under his fright.

Tails gingerly touched the knot on his head. "I came with Mecha. We're trying to save Shadow. But Robo Knux caught me - Sonic, he's after Mecha! You have to stop him!"

"I was planning on it," said Sonic grimly. "Hide in the trees outside the fence. There's a bunch of scientists who need rescuing, and you can help me once I get them out."

Tails nodded and walked unsteadily through the open gate, holding his head.

Sonic dashed for the darkened labs.

Robo Knux entered the lab at a dead run, scanners on full sweep. Mecha must have disguised himself as Sonic, how dare he! His scans revealed that all the labs were empty but for lab 3. He stormed up to the airlock and pressed the button. Nothing happened. He looked up at the ceiling and realized the lights were off. No power. But Mecha was in there!

Robo Knux slammed both sets of claws into the sealed door, but the steel was four inches thick and repelled his claws. He roared and clawed at it. Mecha was so close! Robo Knux was an inch from revenge, and he couldn't get through the stupid door! He stopped and examined his claws, and saw that he was blunting them.

Curses.

He stared at the airlock, scanning the wall structure on either side of it. It was sheetmetal covered in soundboard, airproofed with extra insulation to remain pressurized. Tearing through that would be about as easy as cracking through the airlock.

The skylight. He remembered it with an inner smile. No matter how thick the glass was, it wasn't as tough as metal. He ran for the door and almost collided with a figure at the doors. "Hey, watch it!" the figure yelled.

Sonic. The real Sonic, for this time Robo Knux identified him by body temperature and high-resolution scan. "Get out of my way!" Robo Knux snarled, bounding outside. He ignited the jets in his dreadlocks and launched himself up on the roof.

Mecha, Shadow and the five scientists looked up with a gasp as Robo Knux's green eyes peered down through the skylight.

"This is not good," said Mecha calmly. "We have no way of escape from this room, and it is pressurized."

"Master, can't we teleport out?" Shadow asked. "That scientist has my chaos emerald!" He pointed at Touis, who was wearing the cage on his arm with the emerald in it.

"These walls are chaos-shielded," said Touis. "But here, Sonic, you can have this." He slid off the cage and handed it to Mecha.

Up above, Robo Knux drove his fist into the glass. It held.

Mecha looked at the cage and the emerald in its claws. "I am not the hedgehog," he said grudgingly in his own voice. "I have merely taken his form. I am Metal Sonic."

The scientists gasped and backed away.

Robo Knux dealt the skylight another blow. It held.

Metal Sonic liquefied and resumed his real shape, and handed the chaos emerald to Shadow. Shadow slid the cage with the emerald onto his arm.

"Robo Knux will kill all of you," said Mecha. "However, it is me he wants."

"Robo Knux has been helping us," said Touis. "And he said that you're the one who made Shadow into Mekion." They all muttered confirmation of this, as if they expected Mecha to reach out and turn them all into mecha-fused creatures.

Robo Knux hit the skylight again. Something cracked.

"Believe what you wish," said Mecha, feeling frustrated. "Even if he ignores you, he will harm you as he pursues me. You need a method of defending yourselves."

"His eyes," said Nick. "They're super-sensitive. We just upgraded them."

"Perfect," said Mecha, looking around the dark lab. "And what we do not have is light."

Robo Knux hit the skylight. Something else cracked, and now there was a rushing, whistling sound as air from the pressurized room began to escape.

"All of you, back against the walls," said Mecha. "I will do my best to keep the fight away from you. And if you discover a way to create a bright flash of light, then do so."

"Mecha," whispered Shadow, gripping his emerald. "I thought of something."

The skylight caved in with a colossal smash, cutting him off. A violent wind roared through the lab as the air rushed out, and their ears popped as the pressure dropped. Robo Knux leaped through and dropped to the floor, his eyes a venomous green in the darkness. He and Mecha faced each other in silence for a split second.

"Chaos spear!" Shadow whispered.

A blinding bolt of lightning flashed across the room with an ear-splitting crack, striking Robo Knux. For a second everything in the room was illuminated in brilliant light and crisp, black shadows - the equipment and tables, the faces of the horrified scientists - then it was gone, and Robo Knux clapped his hands to his eyes and collapsed with a scream.

Someone else said, "Chaos relocate!" and there was another flash of light. "Everybody come here!" said Sonic's voice, and he snapped on a tiny light to show them where he was. "Quick, quick!" The Mobians rushed to him, and Sonic teleported them out through the skylight.

Mecha kept himself between Robo Knux and his allies until Sonic could return. "Shadow," he said, "take the human and teleport out."

"What about you?" Shadow exclaimed.

"Do as I say," snarled Mecha.

"Always the hero, Mecha," said Robo Knux, lying on the floor and holding his eyes. "Just like Sonic. The more goody-goody you get, the more like him you are."

Mecha's curled into fists, but he didn't reply.

Sonic returned in a flash of light in front of Nick and Shadow. "Come on, you two!" he said, grabbing both their arms. He teleported them out, and Mecha and Robo Knux faced each other alone.

Robo Knux climbed to his feet, blinking his eyes. "I'm surprised you haven't attacked me yet," he said, straightening. "Is this more of your so-called mercy?"

"You don't give much sport unless you can hit back," said Mecha sarcastically. "New eyes, I see."

"Yes," said Robo Knux, stalking forward. "Very nice they are, too, except during lightning flashes. I see that you haven't mastered chaos emeralds, at least."

Mecha retreated, keeping the tables between them. "Why did you kidnap Shadow?"

"To tick you off," said Robo Knux, standing still. "And Dr. Robotnik and I had a deal. He would manage the upgrades for me if I brought him Shadow and a chaos emerald."

"Ahh yes," said Mecha, leaping aside as Robo Knux sprang over the tables at him. "And all you received was eyes. You got the short end of the stick."

Robo Knux slashed at him, but Mecha dodged and Robo Knux's claws splintered a chair instead. "I made out better than you think," Robo Knux snarled. "Why won't you fight me, coward?"

"Not in the mood, I'm afraid," said Mecha.

There was a sparkle of light, and Sonic appeared behind Mecha, grabbed his arm and said, "Chaos relocate!" Their surroundings changed to the roof, then Sonic teleported again, placing them this time on the helipad at the top of the cliffs. Shadow was there, but the scientists were gone.

"Do not expect me to thank you," said Mecha, jerking his arm out of Sonic's grasp.

"You're welcome," said Sonic.

"Where are the others?" Shadow rasped.

"Oh, down at the dock," said Sonic, pointing. "I dropped them down there and you guys up here. I didn't figure that you'd want to tangle with GUN, Shadow. Are you guys all right?"

"Shadow is injured," said Mecha, gazing at Shadow as if Sonic did not exist.

"Injured?" said Sonic, turning to Shadow with a frown. "What'd they do to you in there?"

"Nothing I couldn't handle," said Shadow coolly. He was standing on one foot with his bandaged leg bent, but until now Sonic had thought that Shadow was merely in a defensive stance.

"Did those scientists do that?" said Sonic, looking from Mecha to Shadow. "And here I saved the jerks ..."

Shadow caught Mecha's eye. "Robotnik did this to me."

"Oh." Sonic looked back at the lab. "Where is he, anyway?"

"No idea," said Mecha. "I believe he escaped before we arrived. However, he left behind four robots in an undisclosed location. They are currently leaving the lab facility, and their signals are set to attack mode."

"Oh heck," whispered Sonic, looking around wildly. "Where's Tails? I forgot about him!"

An object burst out of the trees and flew overhead with a screech of jets and a burst of blue fire. The three hedgehogs automatically ducked, but the object - Robo Knux - passed over them and descended toward the cliff path.

Sonic sprinted after him, wondering in horror if Sally had come ashore at the dock. He lifted his emerald in preparation for a teleport, but the words stuck in his throat as he heard Tails scream, "Help!"

Seconds later, a fireball exploded from the side of the cliff ahead of him. It rolled upward in red flame and black smoke, and Sonic couldn't even think. He just ran.

Tails had seen Robo Knux breaking into the skylight, and saw Sonic teleporting out with passengers. So, sensibly, Tails decided that returning to the Tornado was a good idea.

His head pounded as he walked up the dark road toward the helipad. He had no desire to tangle with Robo Knux again, and now that Sonic was here, everything would be all right. What was Sonic doing here, anyway? He was off on some mission with Sally!

Tails reached the helipad and turned left onto the cliff path. As he descended, he pieced together the facts. Sonic had been hunting Robotnik. Tails and Mecha had been hunting Shadow, who had been captured by Robo Knux and Robotnik. So everyone had converged on this spot, all at the same time. Amazing, really. And here he was, gallivanting around while the chao waited, unprotected, in the Tornado ...

Tails reached the gap in the cliff path, and felt spray on his face from the lashing waves below. He spun his tails and helicoptered across, landed and walked on. Gosh, his head hurt ... he rubbed it as he walked, wishing that he had stayed with the Tornado ...

He heard the distant screech of a jet, and looked up to see a blue light against the night sky. What the? Then he recognized it and bolted, and Robo Knux slammed his claws into the ground where Tails had been standing. "Freeze, fox!" he bellowed, extinguishing his jets and pursuing Tails on foot.

Tails reached a curve in the path, nearly overshot in the dark and fell over to keep from flying off the edge of the cliff. As he scrambled to his feet, Robo Knux seized him by one tail and lifted him off the ground. His green eyes glittered as Tails struggled and kicked.

"Help!" Tails screamed, his voice echoing around the cove.

In the Tornado, Aleda and Nox had waited, bored and anxious. Then Nox asked the Tornado to show them the island on radar, and the two chao had watched the map in fascination as different colored blips moved around on it.

Then Aleda had said, "Nox, what's that sound?"

"Huh?" Nox looked around, realizing that he could hear the rumble of an engine. "It's another boat!" he whispered. "Get down!"

He and Aleda dove to the floor of the Tornado as a speedboat nosed up beside the dock. A female squirrel jumped out and stared at the Tornado, then looked up at the clifftop with her mouth open.

"Who's that?" whispered Aleda.

"I don't know," whispered Nox. "But she recognized the Tornado, and it scared her really bad."

There was a flash of light, and Sonic appeared out of nowhere with four frightened Mobians in labcoats clinging to him. "Here you go, Sal!" said Sonic. "There's one more, I'm going back." He vanished, and the hidden chao watched as the female squirrel ushered the four newcomers into her boat.

Sonic reappeared with a human in tow, and vanished again. The human walked to the end of the dock, and the squirrel helped him into her boat, as well.

"I wish Mecha would come back," murmured Aleda, shivering.

"Me too," whispered Nox. "And bring Shadow." He felt a small wave of loneliness from nearby, and he patted the control panel comfortingly. "Don't worry, Tornado, Tails will be back soon, too."

"I know," said the Tornado so softly they could hardly hear it.

Suddenly there was a roar of jets, and the chao peered into the sky as Robo Knux pounced on Tails. "Oh no, Robo Knux is after him!" cried Nox, jumping up on the seat to see better.

Aleda cowered behind the Tornado's side. "I remember him," she whispered.

"Is Tails in danger?" the Tornado asked.

"Yeah," said Nox. "Oh man, Robo Knux got him! We gotta do something!"

The Tornado's screen displayed a targeting reticule, calculating the angle of the shot, and the rocket launcher on the tail rotated to point up at the cliff. But it hesitated. It couldn't see where it was aiming, and it could not accurately calculate in three dimensions without a visual reading.

Nox turned and saw the screen, and his brain snapped into Omega mode. Nox had been the pilot inside of E-123 Omega, and had enjoyed his power and weapons, using them to destroy everything that moved. And suddenly here was a screen like his old one inside the robot, with a definite target and a deadly weapon at his disposal.

He bounded up on the control panel and seized the weapon controls. "Let me aim!" he exclaimed. "Higher, you have to go higher." The Tornado lifted its sights, and Nox fixed them on Robo Knux, and waited as Robo Knux turned, still carrying Tails, and began walking away up the path. Lead a moving target ... Nox squinted, adjusting the controls with feather-light touches of his round paws. Then he yelled, "Fire!" and squeezed the trigger.

The Tornado knew that it was not allowed to fire its weapons without permission from a user. But the chao were temporary users, and Robo Knux was going to harm Tails. The Tornado didn't want anything to happen to Tails. Firing now might harm Tails, but the Tornado was relying on Nox to be its eyes, and it trusted the chao's judgment. It fired a rocket.

The rocket streaked through the air and struck Robo Knux in the back. Robo Knux was blown into the side of the cliff, dropping Tails, who went flying up the path and rolled to a stop at the edge, stunned from the blast's concussion.

As the resulting fireball mushroomed into the sky, Robo Knux's dizzy systems righted themselves. The armor plating on his back had saved him, but his left arm had taken heavy damage in the shoulder joint, and three of his dreadlock jets were not responding. Maybe they were gone. The fire was so bright that his eyes were in severe pain, and he was glad that he had no other upgrades, or such injury would be painful indeed. He rolled over to extinguish the flames, shielding his face with his good arm.

Mecha and Sonic reached Tails at the same time. Sonic pulled the young fox away from the cliff's edge and lifted him. "Tails? Tails, are you okay?" His voice was shrill with panic.

Mecha knelt beside them, trying to hide his own fear. "His lifesigns are strong."

Sonic cast him a fierce glance, and looked back at Tails. The fox's eyes were open and fixed, unseeing, but he was gasping for breath. "What's he doing here, anyway?" snarled Sonic, looking at Mecha.

"He was assisting me, hedgehog," Mecha snapped, eyes blazing red. "I instructed him to remain at the dock, but it seems he has learned your disregard for following orders."

"If not for you, he wouldn't be here!" Sonic shouted, his fear and fury mounting. "He's been hurt twice in ten minutes!"

"Neither of which were my doing!" Mecha snarled back, crouching slightly as if for a spring. "Do not assume that I cannot care about his well-being, hedgehog! His being your friend was difficult to overcome, but I have managed it!"

"Sonic?" said Tails, blinking as his eyes began to focus again. "Mecha? Why are you guys yelling?"

"Tails!" Sonic said, hugging him and helping him up. "We weren't yelling."

"Where's Robo Knux?" Tails said, looking around in a daze and clinging to Sonic for support. He looked at Mecha, who had risen and was standing with his hands at his sides, but looked as if he would like to hug Tails himself, if he dared. "Mecha, you have to get out of here! You were right about him trying to kill everyone around you - "

"WHAT?" Sonic said, spines bristling.

Tails looked up at Sonic, then at Mecha, and saw that they were staring at each other with the utmost loathing. Tails remembered how upset Sonic had been that Tails had been trying to make friends with Mecha, and realized that Sonic and Mecha were jealous of each other.

A short distance down the path, there was a metallic scraping sound as Robo Knux struggled to rise. The three whirled to face him, and Mecha said, "Take Tails to the dock, hedgehog. I will handle Robo Knux."

Sonic said nothing except, "Chaos relocate," said flickered into view down at the dock with Tails.

Sally was waiting on the dock, and hurried up to them. "Tails, what do you think you're doing here?"

Tails opened his mouth, but Sonic cut him off. "Mecha brought him. Tails is in shock, Sal. Robo Knux almost killed him, and so did whoever fired that rocket. Did you do that?"

"No, the Tornado fired by itself," said Sally. "Scared me to death."

Tails looked at the little blue boat beside the dock, and smiled at it.

Sonic tightened his arm around Tails in a half-hug, then pushed him gently toward Sally. "I gotta go get Shadow, he's all busted up."

"What about Mecha?" said Tails over his shoulder.

Sonic's eyes flashed. "Mecha can look after himself." He teleported in a sparkle of green light.

Tails spun to the Tornado. "Hey Tornado, did you really save me like that?"

"Yes," said the Tornado. "With Nox's assistance."

Tails stepped down into the boat, and Sally stood at the edge and looked in, and saw the two chao for the first time. Their bodies were such dark colors that she hadn't seen them until now.

Nox was bouncing up and down on the back seat, thrilled with his victory, but Aleda was glued to the far side of the boat, staring up at the cliff where her beloved Red-Eyes faced Robo Knux alone.

Shadow had watched Mecha and Sonic sprint away down the path, and turned to follow them, but was hindered by the splint on his leg. It kept his knee from bending, which meant that he couldn't spindash, either. The pain in his leg was lessening, but it would take several hours for the bone to knit completely. Shadow was glad of the pain, for behind it hovered Mekion like a malicious vulture, waiting for the pain to pass so he could resume control.

"No," Shadow told him. "Mecha reduced your control percentage."

"Just as loopholes exist for Shadow, so they exist for me," Mekion whispered. "You resume control when you are in pain, and I resume control when you are occupied with other things. Such as now. Enemies approaching."

"What?" Shadow's head jerked up, and he saw four robots striding out of the darkness under the trees, their green and yellow eyes shining like those of predators. The E-200s. Shadow had grown accustomed to seeing them as harmless lab assistants, and seeing them striding toward him as attackers was unnerving.

Mekion's hand reached down and cut the straps binding the splint to his right leg. "Survival is the Third Law," Mekion informed Shadow. "I am willing to relinquish control to you rather than be exterminated. And we will be exterminated if you cannot move quickly."

Shadow spindashed across the helipad as the four robots opened their chest panels to expose their pistols, and fired. Bullets pinged off the ground in puffs of dust, and whined through the air, but Shadow was faster. He changed directions and slashed into one of the robots, his metal spines tearing it to pieces and flinging its parts in all directions. He skidded to a halt and doubled over in pain as his injured leg screamed. The three remaining robots scattered, and when Shadow lifted his head, they had vanished into the trees.

"They are seeking sheltered positions," Mekion informed him. "We must do the same."

Shadow leaped sideways into a grove of trees and knelt, favoring his leg. For now he and Mekion were united, forming an unbeatable team. Why couldn't it always be like this?

There was a flash of light, and Sonic appeared in the middle of the helipad. "Shadow?" he called, turning in a circle. He didn't know about the concealed robots, or that he presented the perfect target, outlined against the horizon. Fear stabbed Shadow. He opened his mouth to warn him, but Mekion's control clamped down so hard that Shadow blacked out for a second. NO. The word was branded into his consciousness. Shadow struggled merely to breathe - Mekion had never been this strong before.

Gunfire splintered the night, and Sonic yelled and bolted straight toward Shadow, ducking into a spindash. Shadow tumbled to the side, and Sonic slid to a halt and lay on his side, clutching his stomach and panting. He looked up and saw Shadow, who was staring at him. "Just a scratch," said Sonic, looking at his glove, which was stained with dark blood. "What's shooting at us? Those robots Mecha talked about?"

"Yes," whispered Shadow. "They have taken up positions in the trees."

"Got 'em on radar?" said Sonic, scrambling to all fours and peering at the trees across the helipad.

Shadow followed his gaze, consulting Mekion. He pointed. "One is there, one is there, and one is there."

Sonic forced a smile. "Thanks, Shads. I don't have infrared vision, and there's torrential darkness forecast all night tonight."

Shadow smirked. "I'll circle around that way and flank them."

"I'll go the other way," said Sonic, checking his wristwatch. "There's a couple of helicopters due in half an hour, and they're gonna try to land here."

Shadow lifted his chaos emerald, which was still clamped to his hand by the testing cage. "Stop time."

Sonic raised his own emerald. "Right. Chaos control!"

The world froze, and the hedgehogs sprinted from their positions.

Sonic located a robot and smashed it, and Shadow destroyed another, but when time resumed, they had not located the third robot. Nor was there time to find it, for there was a coughing roar of hoverjets, and Robo Knux and Metal Sonic exploded onto the helipad, locked in a deadly wrestling match and tumbling over and over, propelled by Robo Knux's broken jets.

Sonic and Shadow dropped flat by instinct and watched the grappling pair. Robo Knux was slashing and tearing at Mecha, who writhed and fought, landing blows so powerful that Robo Knux's hull was dented and pierced in a dozen places. But Mecha himself was bleeding silver liquid, accumulating too much damage too quickly to heal it.

Mecha melted into a lump of liquid, and Robo Knux leaped away from it. He had learned at their last encounter that Mecha was just as dangerous in his liquid form as in his solid form. Mecha solidified into himself, and was running toward his enemy before his body had hardened. Robo Knux sprang to meet him, and the two engaged in a furious fencing match with their claws as weapons, moving so quickly that it was impossible to tell them apart.

"Give up," Mecha snarled as he fought. "I'm stronger than you. It is futile to continue this, for I'll only destroy you."

"Who's the one bleeding?" jeered Robo Knux, blocking Mecha's fist and plunging his claws all the way through Mecha's arm. He used this as leverage to fling Mecha across the helipad, and observed the silver blood on his claws with satisfaction.

Mecha fell to all fours and jumped up, clutching his arm to his chest as the holes slowly closed. "I may be bleeding," he panted, "but my wounds are healing and yours are not."

"Maybe," said Robo Knux, stalking toward him with his head lowered, "but you can feel pain, and you must breathe to regain strength. I can fight forever, and you will have to rest. What sort of existence is that? You are weak."

"I am not weak," snarled Mecha through his teeth. "I am so much more complex than you that you cannot comprehend it."

Robo Knux flung himself at Mecha, and Mecha grabbed Robo Knux's arm, and used his enemy's momentum in a judo throw, pitching Robo Knux over his head and slamming him on his back. Robo Knux's vision blurred from the impact, but he scrambled to his feet anyway before Mecha could complete his attack. "If I did that to you," he sneered, "you would be too stunned to get up."

"Perhaps," said Mecha, flexing his claws. "Which is why I am astounded that you are receiving upgrades to become just like me."

"I am not!" Robo Knux bellowed, slashing at Mecha with both sets of claws, arms whirling like a windmill. Mecha danced backwards, toward the edge of the cliff. "I want nothing that you possess! Nothing!"

"Except the ability to feel," said Mecha, circling and ducking in to stab at Robo Knux's eyes.

Robo Knux blocked him with an upflung arm and knocked Mecha away with a backhanded thrust. "Why should I want feeling? Pain is so unpleasant that I can't wait to inflict more of it on you. Why is your blood silver, and not clear like Mekion's?"

"Different substance," said Mecha. "His blood is compatible with the organic bloodstream, and my own is living biometal."

"Living, ha!" Robo Knux roared. "You think you're alive, now? I'll put a stop to that!" He rocketed forward with a burst from his damaged jets, one arm protecting his face, the other outstretched like a spear. Mecha spindashed aside, and Robo Knux skidded to a halt on the edge of the cliff and teetered there, looking down. The tide was coming in, and the waves boomed and crashed far up the rocks, sinking back and leaving streamers of white foam. Robo Knux remembered his nanite brain, and that old sickening fear of heights and water struck him. He flung out his arms and backed away from the edge, but Mecha saw his chance. He ran up behind his enemy and shoved him with all his strength.

Robo Knux pitched forward with a cry, and saw the hungry surf opening to swallow him. In desperation he fired his jets as he fell, and they blasted him sideways into the cliff. He slammed his claws into the rock and clung there, dazed with terror, as his jets smoked and the waves reached for him, splattering his hull with water.

Mecha walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down. Robo Knux had fallen about ten feet, and he looked almost comical, clinging to the cliff face. "Well!" said Mecha. "Do you give up now?"

Robo Knux looked up, eyes wide. "Mecha, help me."

Mecha planted his hands on his hips. "Help you? You have injured me in every way known to Mobiankind. You kidnapped and tortured Shadow. I owe you nothing."

"Mecha, please," gasped Robo Knux. His left arm was damaged from the Tornado's rocket, and his claws were slipping little by little. He looked up pleadingly. "Mecha, don't let me die. I don't want to die!"

"Die?" said Mecha, sneering. "You, of all robots, shouldn't worry about that."

"Yes I can!" cried Robo Knux. If he fell, that water would short-circuit him and beat him to fragments on the rocks. Not even his skull would survive that. He struggled to wedge his claws deeper into the gap in the rocks where they had lodged. "Open your network port," he said. "I have to show you something."

"Very well," said Mecha, and Robo Knux connected, and transferred a file.

"These are the schematics of my brain," said Robo Knux through the network. "See it? See the nanite fluid? I'm alive, Mecha! Just like you! And I don't want to die!"

Mecha was stunned. His shoulders slumped, and he stared down at Robo Knux, who was so afraid of the water below him. Robo Knux had a nanotech brain. No wonder he acted the way he did. He had denied wanting to be alive, while he was suffering the same torment that Mecha had experienced. Trapped in an obsolete metal body, while the brain withered from lack of stimulation. Robo Knux was going mad.

"How long have you known this?" Mecha whispered over the network.

"A few days," replied Robo Knux. "You're all merciful and all that, aren't you? Pull me up! Don't let me fall!"

Mecha regarded his enemy, still aching from his closed wounds. He thought of how much he hated this other robot, then remembered what it had been like before his upgrades. The sheer misery and pointlessness of life, the hatred of everything living because he wanted to live so badly. A new thought struck him - had his own brain always been nanite-based? Had he been alive since his creation? Was that why he kept having nightmares about Robotropolis?

"Mecha, please!" Robo Knux cried, as one of his hands slipped free with a grinding screech.

Mecha made his decision and stooped, planning to climb down the cliff. Behind him, across the helipad, in the trees, the last remaining E-200 robot targeted the android's silhouette and fired. Shadow destroyed it half a second later.

The bullet punched through Mecha's back and out his stomach, and the impact knocked him over the edge. The pain took him by such surprise that he didn't even have the sense to grab at the wall of the cliff as he fell.

Robo Knux reached out and grabbed Mecha by one arm, and the resulting jolt nearly tore his anchored claws out of their crack. Mecha slammed into the cliff and swung back and forth, coughing. When he looked up at Robo Knux, there was silver blood at the corners of his mouth. "Thank you," he said thickly, and coughed again, doubling up.

"Stop that," snarled Robo Knux. "You're making me lose my grip."

Over the network, Mecha said dryly, "I apologize. Another biological reaction I cannot seem to help, especially when injured internally."

Sonic and Shadow appeared at the top of the cliff, gazing down in shock. "How do we pull them up?" said Sonic. "A teleport won't work on a cliff."

"Mecha," said Shadow through the network, "are you all right?"

"I must rest for several hours," Mecha replied the same way. "Every movement I make until then makes the wound worse. I have not felt such pain in ... months."

Shadow turned to Sonic. "We need a rope."

"There's some down by the dock," said Sonic. "I'll get it, be right back."

He teleported, and Shadow stood looking down helplessly at his master and his enemy.

Robo Knux looked up at Shadow, then down at Mecha. His eyes narrowed. "You know," he remarked, as waves crashed against the rock and coated Mecha in spray, "if I dropped you, I would be rid of you quite effectively."

"Yes," said Mecha. "But then the two up there would not pull you up."

Robo Knux gazed thoughtfully down at Mecha, and at the rocky sea beneath them. "I don't want to die," he said. "But I do want you to die. The irony is almost amusing."

Sonic appeared on the dock, panting, and ran to the Tornado, where Tails was sitting with his head in one hand, watching the radar screen with his thrall sphere in his lap. "Tails," Sonic said, "got a rope I could use?"

"Uh, sure," said Tails. "Use the one we're tied up with."

"Cool." Sonic unwound it from the piling, and Tails untied it from its eyelet on the boat. "What's happening?" Tails asked as they worked.

"Oh," said Sonic, "Mecha and Robo Knux are hanging from the cliff out by the helipad. See you!"

He teleported away as Aleda wailed, "WHAT? What's he mean, hanging from a cliff?" She leaped out of the Tornado and ran up the dock, and Tails climbed out and ran after her.

"Aleda, you have to stay here," he said, catching her and picking her up.

She struggled and fought, crying, "Mecha hates water! If he falls in he'll die! I have to do something!"

Tails grabbed her flailing paws. "Aleda, you're a chao! You can't do anything!"

Sally stepped out of the speedboat and hurried up. "What's wrong?"

Tails explained over Aleda's cries, and Sally looked at the chao, then up at the cliff walls that hid the drama from view. "Tails," she said, "she's a chao. She CAN help." She reached into her vest pocket and pulled out the violet chaos emerald. It glowed in her hand with warm purple light, and Aleda hushed and stared at it. "Here," said Sally, holding it out, although it was a wrench letting the gem go. "Take it. I've seen how chao love their owners, and if you love Mecha like that, then ..."

Aleda took the emerald in her paws, and Tails set her on the dock. Aleda gazed at the gem in sober fascination, then grabbed it in her mouth and bit down.

Sonic reappeared on the clifftop with the rope. "Got it," he panted to Shadow, and dashed off to tie the end to a tree. Shadow looped the rope around his robot arm, and threw it down to Mecha and Robo Knux.

Robo Knux looked at the dangling rope, then at the dangling Mecha. "You know," he said quietly to the blue android, "I did think about saving you, really. But I'm not hampered by any of your pathetic mercy. Do say hi to Maria for me, assuming robots are let into the afterlife."

Mecha's eyes widened in disbelief.

Robo Knux flung Mecha out away from the cliff, and grabbed the rope at the same time. Sonic and Shadow saw Mecha plunge into the white surf, and both of them screamed, "NO!"

Shadow slashed through the rope with his steel claws. Robo Knux's look of triumph turned to a look of terror as the rope went slack. Then he, too, plunged into the sea he had feared for so long.

When Mecha struck the water and plunged into the icy darkness, he knew that he was going to die.

The water stung the wound in his back and belly with salt, and his raw nerve endings overloaded. Mecha wanted to scream with the pain, but he kept his mouth tightly shut. He must hold the air in his lungs for as long as he could. He thrashed and kicked, and the current tumbled him over and over. He was being dragged down and backwards, into the deeper chaotic depths of the ocean. He opened his eyes and could see nothing but darkness, and the saltwater burned his eyes.

The direction of the current changed, and the sea lifted him and hurled him forward. His head broke the surface, and he gasped for breath an instant before the water smashed him into the rocks. He clawed at the rocks as the water sucked him down and backwards, but they were coated with moss and slime, and the sea dragged him under again, swallowing him alive.

Mecha fought to stay conscious, but the impact had damaged large portions of his body, and his lungs were empty of oxygen. Like Robo Knux, he found himself thinking, "I don't want to die, please don't let me die!"

A deeper blackness than the ocean obscured his vision, and he fought it. No, he was not going to drown, he was going to survive this! He fleetingly remembered Tails talking about communicating with the Master Designer, and Mecha directed his internal cries to whatever deity might be there. "I do not want to drown, please do something to save me before I ..."

The currents flung him to the surface and beat him into the cliffs again. Mecha's flailing claws lodged this time in the jagged rocks and anchored him against the sucking tide, and he lay half in, half out of the water, gasping and coughing, the world dimming, then brightening, then dimming. Water was pouring out of his mouth, and he tasted his own blood. He must have inhaled without knowing it.

He was so tired that he could hardly force his hands to grip the rocks, and there was a roaring in his ears that was not entirely the surf. When the next wave came, it would wash him off the rocks, and he would not survive another collision with the cliffs. "Your quest is in vain," he thought, lying his head against the cold, hard rocks. "If there is a Master Designer, he either doesn't care that you're drowning, or he can't do a thing to save you."

Something flickered in the corner of his vision, and Mecha turned his head. Something was flying over the ocean. It looked like a moth the size of a motorcycle. It swerved and flew toward him, racing the next wave as it roared in to claim his life. He turned away and tightened his grip on the rock, and the wave struck him and closed over his head. It lifted him off the rock, breaking his grip, then ripped him backward and -

Mecha was yanked to a halt, and the angry water roared over him. Then it was gone, and he was lifting his head, still on the rocks as foam gushed away in rivulets worn in the boulders. A long, slender creature was holding him, a creature with limbs as thin and hard as wire. Its eyes glowed red, but its face made no sense to him.

As he looked up at it, it said, "Mecha, you're so hurt! I was calling and calling, but you couldn't hear me! I'm sorry I wasn't faster!"

He recognized her voice, and his senses began to return. "Aleda?" he whispered.

Her head bobbed up and down. She had transformed into some sort of insect, and he wondered where she had found a chaos emerald.

"Can you get up?" she asked. "I tried to lift you, but you're too heavy."

He moved his limbs and realized that he was in such pain that sections of his pain sensors had shorted out completely. He grabbed one of her slender legs, and found to his shock that it was made of metal. He pulled himself upright, and felt her claws on his arms, helping him up. "Here comes the water," she said. "Up here, quick - "

She dragged him up higher, over barnacle-encrusted stone that scored his damaged body with fresh scratches. He tried to help himself along, and this time when the wave crashed in, it splashed over them both, but couldn't dislodge them from their perch.

Mecha looked over his shoulder at the waves, each one rolling and cresting and crashing in toward land. The sight terrified him, and he looked up at Aleda. Her head was turning this way and that, red eyes flicking back and forth. She released him with one hand and drew it close to her narrow, stick-like body, and Mecha realized what she was. She was a praying mantis made of blue metal. How utterly unique! At once he was immensely proud of her.

"Mecha," she said, her plate-like jaws opening and closing, "Robo Knux is over there."

He straightened and followed her gaze, and saw an angular shape that was Robo Knux lying facedown on a tumble of boulders twenty feet away. The waves had deposited him there, and they were threatening to wash him away again.

Robo Knux had thrown him into the ocean! The thought outraged Mecha. He was in mammoth pain and had almost died because of Robo Knux. It served him right to short out and drown in the undertow. Mecha thought of the horror of being sucked under and hurled against the rocks, and recalled thinking in Robo Knux's words, "I don't want to die ..." Robo Knux had experienced the same thing, except without the pain. He might be dead even now.

Life is precious. It had been Mecha's mantra, and now he was faced with the reality of that mantra. Was the life of a loathsome backstabbing assassin precious, as well? He had a nanite brain. He was at least as alive as Mecha. Despite his crimes, even Robo Knux's life was worth saving, because it was a life.

"Aleda," whispered Mecha hoarsely, "pull him out of the water."

Sonic and Shadow ran along the top of the cliff, staring down at the water. It was difficult to see anything in the darkness, but the primary moon was rising in the east, and Sonic and Shadow kept stopping and looking down at the crashing waves.

Sonic was kicking himself for letting his jealousy get the better of him. It shouldn't bother him if Tails wanted to be friends with Mecha. There had been a time when Sonic had tried to make friends with Mecha, himself. And now Mecha was gone, and there was nothing Sonic could do about it.

Shadow had not made a sound since throwing Robo Knux into the water, but he ran and hunted and scanned with a fervent desperation. He gripped the chaos emerald in its cage on his arm, wanting to teleport to wherever Mecha was, but entering the water would be as lethal to Mekion as to Metal Sonic. Every second that passed brought Mecha that much closer to death, and every wave that struck the foot of the cliffs was like a countdown.

"Shadow!" Sonic shouted, waving. Shadow looked up. Sonic was thirty feet away, looking over the edge. Sonic pointed. "Look at that!"

Shadow sprinted to him and looked. Flitting over the water was a gleaming insectoid shape, and a dark shape lay on the rocks near it. "That's him," said Shadow, and teleported.

A second later he returned, supporting Mecha with one arm over his shoulders. Mecha sank to the ground, shivering, and Sonic and Shadow knelt over him. "Thank you, Shadow," said Mecha, rubbing the salt out of his eyes.

"Are you okay?" Sonic asked.

Mecha looked up at him, then struggled to sit up. He would not lie down in his enemy's presence, not again. Mecha was not defeated this time. He clutched his stomach wound and growled, "I have never been better, hedgehog."

"Liar," said Shadow over the network.

"Shut up," Mecha replied the same way. Aloud he said, "Robo Knux is on the rocks nearby. One of you must retrieve him."

Sonic and Shadow exchanged an incredulous look. "After what he just did to you?" exclaimed Sonic. "Did you hit your head real hard or something?"

Mecha bared his teeth in a snarl. "He is alive, fool. And because of that, he is worth saving. For now. Retrieve him before it is too late!"

Sonic stood up, shaking his head, and looked over the cliff's edge. The insect-thing was hovering over another dim shape on the black rocks. "Hey Mecha," said Sonic, "there's a giant bug-thing down there."

"It is Aleda," said Mecha, struggling to contain a cough. "With a chaos emerald."

"Dude," said Sonic in surprise, and teleported.

A moment later he returned, dragging Robo Knux by one arm and Aleda by one of her sickle-shaped foreclaws. She hurried to Mecha, striding along on her four back legs with her two arms held bent in front of her.

"You never cease to surprise me," said Mecha, looking at her.

"Thank you!" she said, pleased. "Are you hurt awfully bad?"

Mecha cast a glance at Sonic. "Merely a fleshwound. It appears that you have taken damage as well, hedgehog."

Sonic looked down and saw that the bullet scratch across his stomach had bled all down his torso and legs, looking much more horrible than it was. "Oh heck," said Sonic, wincing. "Sally's gonna flip."

"And Tails, as well," said Mecha. "Tell him that I apologize for not being able to say goodbye in person, but revealing myself to GUN is a remarkably bad idea."

"Right," said Sonic, eyes darkening. "Why don't you guys keep in touch, instead of going off and getting into trouble on your own?"

"Our affairs do not concern you," said Mecha, turning to Shadow. "Retrieve Nox and we will depart."

Shadow nodded and teleported. He returned a few minutes later with an ecstatic Nox clinging to him, then teleported himself, Mecha and Aleda away in a flash of light.

Sonic was left alone with Robo Knux in the moonlight on the cliff. Sonic nudged the robot with a toe and rolled him over. Water poured out of the holes in Robo Knux's torso and arms, and his eyes were closed. He certainly looked dead. "Hey stupidface," said Sonic to him. "Can you hear me?"

Robo Knux did not respond.

Sonic knew better than to assume that the robot was offline, however. He bent down and grabbed Robo Knux's foot, and teleported down to the dock. To his surprise, there was no one there. After a moment's consideration, Sonic teleported to the Lincanna.

Here were lights, noise and people. The five scientists were huddled in a group at the stern, and a medic was inspecting them. Tails stood in the bow, watching as the Tornado was hauled on board by several humans with ropes. Robo Knux looked ugly and incongruous, sprawled in a tangle on the clean deck. Sonic stepped away from him, an old wound on the back of his leg tingling.

He felt a tap on his shoulder, and turned to see Sally standing there. Without a word they embraced and held each other. It was over. They had won. Then Sonic winced and released Sally as pain seared through the cut on his stomach. "Sorry Sal," he said, "but you know how these missions are ..."

Sally looked down and saw the blood that matted his fur, and cried, "Sonic Hedgehog! What happened to you?"

"Bullet scratch," said Sonic, inspecting it in the deck lights. "It didn't hit anything vital, honest."

"You come over here and let the medics look at you," said Sally, grabbing his arm and guiding him across the deck. "I can't believe you and your pain tolerance! Why didn't you abort and come back?"

"I was too busy," said Sonic. "And it doesn't really hurt, anyway."

Tails saw him being marched across the deck, and Sonic grinned sheepishly. Tails grinned back and trotted up to him. "Nice cut, Sonic," he said. "Are Mecha and Shadow okay?"

"Yeah, they were pretty banged up, so they left," said Sonic. "Mecha said he was sorry for not being able to say goodbye in person."

Tails looked down at the deck for a moment, then looked up with a smile. "He didn't threaten to kill me or anything, did he?"

"Nope," said Sonic, wishing he could say otherwise.

"Cool," said Tails.

Sally grabbed his arm. "Let's have the medic look at you, too, young kit. You don't recover from shock that easily."

As Sonic and Tails sat down on a bench to await their turn, Tails whispered, "You propose yet?"

"Nope," Sonic whispered back. "Something always happens."

"You could ask her now," said Tails, watching Sally as she spoke to one of the medics, a human in a white uniform.

"Naw," Sonic whispered. "She'd knock me over the head."

The medic approached, eyes widening at the amount of blood that Sonic had lost, and opened the medkit.

Across the deck, Nick lifted his head and saw Robo Knux, who was surrounded by wary GUN soldiers, even though he still showed no sign of life. "Hey guys," he said, nudging Lintel with his elbow. "Look what the cat dragged in."

The others looked up, saw the robot, and exchanged looks. "I wonder if they'd let us claim him," muttered Touis, rising to his feet. He padded across the deck to the soldiers, and the other four followed him.

"Stay back," warned one of the men. "This thing is still dangerous."

Nick cocked his head and gazed at the robot's face. One of Robo Knux's eyes was open a slit, and the green iris glowed through. Nick glanced at Touis and said, "This robot belongs to the Analytech firm."

"Yeah, it does," said Touis, catching on. "It's laboratory property."

The soldiers looked at them doubtfully. Nick motioned to Robo Knux. "Ask him."

One of the soldiers said, "Identify your owner, unit."

Robo Knux opened his eyes, and took in the scientists, then the soldiers. "Self-unit is property of the Analytech firm," he said in his best robotic monotone.

"Fine," said one of the soldiers. "Then you get this thing cleaned off the deck."

The five scientists gathered around Robo Knux and hoisted him to his feet. His motion control center was shorted out, so they had to carry him to the passenger benches across the deck, but his eyes flickered from side to side, absorbing everything.

"Thanks," he whispered.

"Don't mention it," Nick whispered back.

Shadow awoke two days later.

He was lying on his cot in the mountain base, and the familiar darkness shrouded him. Nox was curled up in his usual place beside Shadow's head, and Mecha was standing in the far corner of the room. He had been standing there when Shadow had fallen asleep two days ago, and he didn't appear to have moved.

Mekion was quiet, but he still felt resentful, even if he said nothing. "Greetings Mecha," whispered Shadow. "Am I repaired?"

"I have been working on Mekion remotely for nearly forty-eight hours," Mecha replied. "I have repaired some of the damage, but a large amount remains."

Shadow sat up and moved his leg. It had healed and no longer pained him. "Mecha," he said, stretching and yawning, "didn't you rest?"

"Yes, of course," said Mecha, frowning. "The trouble with a stomach wound is that I cannot lie on my back, front, or sides without pain. I can only stand."

"Are you still in pain?"

Mecha looked down and touched his stomach. "The outer wounds have closed, but my power core is taking extra time to regenerate. I am no longer bleeding internally, but it ... hurts." He spoke the last word with bewilderment, as if he could not comprehend why his body had not yet repaired itself.

Shadow stood up and was struck by a wave of dizziness. He sat down on the edge of his cot and held his head. "What's wrong with Mekion?" he asked.

"You shall have to ask him," said Mecha wearily. "Robotnik so damaged the three laws operating system that my repair patches error before they are installed."

Shadow said to his mechanical half, "Mekion status?"

"Mekion 100 operational," Mekion replied.

Shadow asked, "Who is registered as Master?"

"Data error," said Mekion.

Shadow raised an eyebrow at himself. "What about the three laws?"

"Three laws are intact," said Mekion.

Shadow looked at Metal Sonic. "The laws work, but we have no master."

"Better none than Robotnik," said Mecha. "Again, I sincerely apologize for putting you through this. I should never have conducted the mecha-fusion experiment on you."

Shadow was moved by his master's humility. "Do not punish yourself, Mecha. With no master registered, Mekion will have no call for aggression."

"Possibly," said Mecha. "He might also become much, much worse." He stepped out of the corner and walked toward the door, limping slightly. As he passed, Mekion's claws whipped out like lightning and tore three silver gashes in the side of Metal Sonic's head.

Mecha leaped sideways, hit the wall and almost fell, spinning to face Shadow. Shadow looked down at his claws in horrified disbelief. "Mecha, Mekion did it by himself!"

Metal Sonic stood still as the cuts on his head shrank and disappeared. "As I said," he murmured, "Mekion might become worse." He turned and strode to the door.

Shadow addressed his own mind. "Why did you strike him? He's not an enemy!"

Mekion's silence was ominous.

Mekion behaved himself as Shadow went about eating and grooming himself, but any time he crossed paths with Metal Sonic, that robot hand managed to hurt Mecha with a random lightning-quick cut. After the third time this happened, Shadow fled to his room and shut the door. What was wrong with him? Mekion was out of control!

"Nox," he whispered to his chao, who had followed him in, "what's wrong with me?"

Nox looked up at him thoughtfully. "You're angry, and scared. And Mekion is ... cold. Just cold, nothing else."

"Cold," whispered Shadow, looking at the walls as if seeking an escape from his own body. "I can't let him keep hurting Mecha, Nox! Mecha's hurt enough as it is." He clenched both fists. "I swore that I'd be nobody's pawn if I ever got out of that lab. That includes being Mekion's pawn. He's using me, and I'm sick of being used!" He began to pace back and forth in the small room.

Nox watched him. "But how do you keep from being used?"

"I need to get stronger," said Shadow. "I have to conquer Mekion from the inside. The control rankings are gone, so it'll be a war. But he doesn't have the power that he did. He must be running in my subconscious, which is how he controls the attack reflex." He snatched his orange chaos emerald off the shelf above his bed, and jerked it out of the claws of the testing cage. "I have to leave until I master him."

"Can I go?" said Nox.

Shadow gazed sidelong at the chao, and said, "Very well. Mekion bears no ill will toward you. Come on, I need to explain to Mecha."

Mecha was in the control room with the heaters turned on, gazing absently at the computer screens, standing, as usual. He turned stiffly to face Shadow as the hedgehog entered.

Shadow stood just inside the door, ten feet from Mecha. "Mecha," he whispered, "I have to leave."

Mecha gazed at him, and lowered his head. "Yes. I thought it might come to that."

Shadow stared at the floor, ashamed of himself and Mekion. "I have to learn to control him, and until then, he might use me to destroy you."

"Yes." Mecha's voice was flat. He drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. "If you must leave, please accept my assistance." He took an object off the control panel and flipped it to Shadow.

Shadow caught it and saw that it was Mecha's debit card. "No, Mecha, I can't take this."

"I can get another," said Mecha, his voice curiously dry and dead. His face was empty of expression. "I would not have you wind up in prison for stealing food and supplies. I can keep track of you by your purchases."

Shadow opened his mouth, but Mecha raised a hand. "I made you what you are, and I am responsible for your welfare. I cannot resume my quest until spring, anyway."

"You're continuing your search for the Master Designer?" said Shadow.

"Yes," said Mecha, turning to the computers. "My previous journey opened new avenues of research that I had not considered. Perhaps in four months you will have overcome Mekion."

"Maybe," said Shadow, feeling the hollow in his head that was his robot half. He looked at the debit card, and realized that Mecha was being kind. The sort of kindness that Shadow had only seen in him in glimpses and flashes. What had happened between Shadow's abduction and rescue? He almost asked, but he was aware of Mekion watching for an opportunity to strike, and knew that he had to get out of here. "Thank you, Master," he whispered.

Mecha didn't look at him, but one hand clenched into a fist, then relaxed. "For the last time, Shadow. Do not call me Master."

Shadow picked up Nox in one arm, and teleported away.

Aleda found Mecha in the control room half an hour later. Mecha was leaning on the control panel with his head in one hand, but it wasn't until she reached his feet that she realized that Mecha was crying in silence. He picked her up, set her beside the keyboard and stroked her with one hand.

She reached up and wiped away his tears. "Don't cry, Mecha. Does it still hurt that much?"

"Shadow is gone," said Mecha over the network. He could control his internal voice, while at the moment he was not sure that his external voice would function. "Mekion is so damaged that there was nothing else that he could do. And I am a wretched fool for making him what he is. I have heaped torment upon torment on Shadow, and now I do not suppose I will ever see him again."

Aleda gazed into his glistening red eyes. "He left because he didn't want to hurt you?"

Mecha nodded.

Aleda said, "Well, once he won't hurt you anymore, he'll come back. He may not agree with you all the time, but he does love you. Nox told me so."

"Love," said Mecha bitterly. "Do not bother me with things I do not understand. I am a robot, Aleda. There is nothing about me to love, and as I cannot understand it, I cannot return it."

"Then how come you're crying?" said Aleda, putting her paws around his neck.

Mecha had no answer for that. He stroked her soft blue head and swallowed his tears. There was no time for self-pity, anyway. He had his next foray into the wilds of Mobius to plan, and Aleda had brought back the violet chaos emerald. He wanted to learn to use chaos energy. He had mastered it once, and he was certain that he could do it again.

Nick lay on a gurney with his shirt off, and watched the computer screens beside him.

The Analytech firm was back in their old lab for a while. Downsizing to one airlock chamber had been tough, but none of them complained. The old lab felt positively homey compared to the Deimos Island one.

Now his four colleagues were running tests on the nanites in his bloodstream to see exactly what Robotnik had done to him. Nick had wanted to check in to a hospital, but Touis talked him out of it. "Nobody else has the facilities to test for nanite effects, and a regular doctor would just tell you that you have an infection and slap you with antibiotics."

So Nick was lying here with sensors stuck all over his chest to monitor his vital signs. Barlet was running a blood sample through their testing machine, and Kray, Touis and Lintel were seated at the computers, viewing the analysis results.

"Any word yet?" he asked them.

"No," Kray growled. "If you ask one more time, I'll tell the cops that you died of leukemia."

Nick laughed.

He watched as more results appeared on screen, along with computer-generated images of nanites and blood cells. Touis whistled softly, and Nick turned his head. "What? What?"

"Look at this," said Touis. "The nanites have ... augmented your white blood cells."

Nick squinted at the images. "They what?"

Touis pointed. "Look! See how this nanite is attached to the side of the white blood cell? It's acting like a virus, but unlike a virus, it's not trying to destroy the cell. It's like ... it's made it stronger."

"So is that good or bad?" said Nick.

"Could go either way," said Lintel. "Sometimes the immune system can turn on the body itself."

Barlet lifted his head from the microscope. "Guys," he said, "I think we should test him with the chaoscope."

There was a moment of silence. The chaoscope showed chaos activity and chaos auras, like an x-ray, and no human had ever turned up positive on it. "Might as well," said Nick. "Look at it this way. I should have died and I didn't. The nanites have boosted my immune system. If I have a chaos field, then we know that Robotnik's experiment succeeded."

The Mobians exchanged glances. Touis shrugged. "Okay, fine. Lintel, unhook his sensors."

Five minutes later, Nick was standing on a metal pad in front of an illuminated panel on the wall. Touis pointed an object like a telescope at him, adjusted it, then pressed a button. There was a click, and Touis turned to the computer screen nearby. Nick stepped off the metal pad, and they all gathered around and looked.

Nick's body appeared as a silhouette, and encircling him was an uneven white glow, like a halo around a bright light.

Touis turned and shook Nick's hand. "Congratulations. You are the first ever chaos-positive human."

Nick smiled uneasily. "So what's that mean?"

The Mobians looked at each other. Lintel grinned. "We have no idea what it means. But it'd be cool to find you a chaos emerald and see what happens."

Nick looked even more uneasy. "Right. Thanks, guys."

In the corner, a red robot on a table called, "And stay the heck away from Dr. Robotnik!"

"That goes without saying," said Nick.

A few days later, winter arrived in the form of a snowstorm. It dumped several feet of snow on the mountains around Mecha's base, but left only six inches over Knothole. When the villagers awoke that morning, they discovered that the barren trees and dead grass had been transformed into a soft white fairyland.

Sally stepped outside with a gasp of surprise, gazing at the clean whiteness that made all other colors look dark and vivid. Village children ran about, giggling and shouting, and the snow was marked with blue footprints. Her winter coat was grown in, and the cold felt mildly pleasant, but she returned inside for a pair of mittens. Then she went looking for Sonic.

Sonic had left his hut, as she could see by the footprints in the snow. She followed them to Tails's hut, where another set of footprints joined Sonic's. Then both sets of tracks galloped straight through the woods toward the meadow. Sally followed them, smiling at how far apart the prints were - they had been racing.

Presently the trees thinned, and Sally stepped out into the meadow, which was now a glittering white expanse with the sun shining on it. Sonic and Tails were two dark figures against the snow, and she squinted and shaded her eyes.

Tails was holding a baseball bat at the ready, and Sonic was crouched down, rolling snowballs. Then he jumped up and threw several as fast as his arm could go. Tails swung furiously, hitting the snowballs, which exploded into white fragments that scattered around him. He missed one snowball, which hit him in the side of the head, and he laughed.

"A point for me!" Sonic yelled.

"Five to two," said Tails, wiping snow out of his eyes. "Hi Sally!" He waved.

Sonic turned and called, "Hey Sal, want a turn?"

"Sure!" she replied, crunching forward. She accepted the bat from Tails and swung it a few times as Tails walked to Sonic. The pair whispered together as they made snowballs, then stood up with their hands full, grinning mischievously.

"Two against one isn't fair," Sally called. "Don't you guys dare - Sonic, don't you - NO!"

The fox and hedgehog pelted her with snowballs, and Sally shrieked, laughing and swinging the bat as if swatting flies. She felt it connect with several snowballs, but most of them struck her and exploded. All three of them were laughing. She threw down the bat, grabbed handfuls of snow and packed it into balls, then hurled them at her attackers.

"Hey, no fair!" Sonic yelled, shielding himself.

"Is too fair!" Sally yelled. "Just like two against one!"

By the time their snowball fight was over, ten minutes later, all three of them were covered in snow. Panting, they brushed each other off, and Sonic picked up the baseball bat. "I love days off," he said, eyes glittering like the snow.

"Me too!" said Tails. "I wonder where the sleds are?"

"Ah, just make the Tornado turn into one," said Sonic, and they laughed.

Sally saw Tails elbow Sonic, and Sonic seemed to remember something. "Oh, right." He turned to Sally, his eyes still dancing. "Sal, I have a question."

Sally couldn't keep from grinning. "The same question you were going to ask on the Lincanna?"

"And a million times before that," said Sonic, glancing at Tails. Tails was laughing with both hands over his mouth.

"Get on your knees!" Tails said in a stage whisper.

Sonic's grin widened. "C'mon Sal, don't make me kneel down in the snow."

She pretended to think about it. "Is your shoe unbuckled?"

Sonic looked down. "Hey, it is!" He knelt down and pulled off one glove, revealing a ring on his little finger. He slid it off and held it up to Sally. "Marry me?"

She reached for the ring, but hesitated. "Is that a hypothetical question?"

"Nope," said Sonic. "I'm afraid it's the real thing."

She took the ring and said, "And I'm afraid the answer is yes."

He jumped to his feet, laughing. "Knux went on about how hard that was!"

Sally pulled off a mitten and put on the ring, and looked at it on her hand. "Sonic, this is an emerald!" She went into peals of laughter.

"Well, what else should the wife of Sonic Hedgehog wear?" he said, grinning.

She stepped up and hugged him, and Sonic put his arms around her with uncharacteristic tenderness. "Hey Sal," he said, and she looked up at him. "Kiss me?" he said. She tilted her head forward and he kissed her on the lips for the first time. Sally felt herself melting - she had waited so long for this.

As they parted, Sally said, "And if you teleport away, the engagement is off."

"C'mon, Sal!" said Sonic, pretending to be offended. "Running's what I do!" He dusted the snow off his knees. "Well, that's out of the way, and I'm starved. Let's get some chow." He offered one hand to Sally and the other to Tails, and took off running for Knothole, towing them.

Their laughter faded into the distance, brightening the change of seasons with joy.

The end


End file.
